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Palgrave Macmillan

George White and the Victorian Army in India and Africa

Serving the Empire

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  • © 2020

Overview

  • Explores late Victorian military conflicts, British power relations in Africa and in Asia, networks of advancement in the British army, and popular attitudes of the army

  • Based on White’s personal papers held by the India Office, which have been almost completely overlooked by historians

  • Offers insights into many military, imperial and social issues related to Victorian Britain/Ireland and the empire

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Table of contents (11 chapters)

Keywords

About this book

This book offers a detailed investigation of George S. White’s career in the British Army. It explores late Victorian military conflicts, British power dynamics in Africa and Asia, civil-military relations on the fringes of the empire, and networks of advancement in the army. White served in the Indian Rebellion and, twenty years later, the Second Anglo-Afghan War, where he earned the Victoria Cross. After serving in the Sudan campaign, White returned to India and held commands during the conquest and pacification of Upper Burma and the extension of British control over Balochistan, and, as Commander-in-Chief, sent expeditions to the North-West Frontier and oversaw major military reforms. Just before the start of the South African War, White was given the command of the Natal Field Force. This force was besieged in Ladysmith for 118 days. Relieved in 1900, White was heralded as the “Defender of Ladysmith.” He was made Field-Marshal in 1903.

Reviews

“Florence Nightingale at Home makes a strong case for renewed attention to Nightingale’s career as a nursing pioneer and as an imperial sanitary reformer. … The book … demonstrates the importance of the notion of domesticity for rethinking and rescaling analyses of social bodies, nations, empires … ecologies.” (Richard Bonfiglio, Victorian Studies, Vol. 65 (1), 2022)

“Once again, Stephen Miller shows he is a thorough researcher of that special kind, a master storyteller and brilliant analyst. George White the militarist, the administrator and the man comes to life in a gripping and well-balanced text. Surely White will now no longer be the “forgotten figure of British imperial military history.”

— Fransjohan Pretorius, Professor Emeritus of History, University of Pretoria, South Africa



Authors and Affiliations

  • University of Maine, Orono, USA

    Stephen M. Miller

About the author

Stephen M. Miller is Adelaide C. and Alan L. Bird Professor and Chair of the Department of History at the University of Maine, USA. His research focuses on the British Army and the South African War.


Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: George White and the Victorian Army in India and Africa

  • Book Subtitle: Serving the Empire

  • Authors: Stephen M. Miller

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50834-0

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: History, History (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-50833-3Published: 17 November 2020

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-50836-4Published: 17 November 2021

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-50834-0Published: 16 November 2020

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: IX, 323

  • Number of Illustrations: 6 b/w illustrations, 2 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: History of Military, Imperialism and Colonialism, History of Britain and Ireland

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