Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good but not great, 6 Nov 2008
As stated in my title this book is a good read for those interested purely in the military and political aspects of the time.Well written and with little inclination in the way of bias towards either side the book provides snipets of unique information and quotes although not much attention is payed to the key figures in the rising.To some this may be a positive as it is easy to get confused or bogged down in names and descriptions, especially for those who are new to the subject. However i personally feel such detail is necessary to determine why certain characters behaved, spoke or acted in the way they did and their reasons and thought-process in doing so.
The book concentrates heavily on the wider political and military perspective of the time regarding the British government and its army's involvement in the wars of 'the low countries'.Some of this detail is very interesting, especially the British government's reaction to the threat posed by the Jacobites and the subsequent troop withdrawals from Flanders.Some however is slightly overcooked and one feels that perhaps more of the book should have been dedicated to the '45 itself and the many intriguing encounters that occured but seem to have been slightly skimmed over-particularly the battles.The diagrams used are also slightly disappointing i.e very basic but the book is certainly worth purchasing as, on the whole,the positives outweigh the negatives.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Not too bad, 7 Aug 2009
For once I find myself agreeing with Mr MacDonald!
This book, which incidentally takes its title from a children's book on the same subject by Kathleen Fidler, covers the Jacobite rebellions from 1689-1746, concentrating on the '45, which a few other recent books have done, eg The Last Charge of the Highland Clans (2006)and The Highland Wars (2002), but none of these is very satisfactory. Having said that, Black's is the best of the three by a long shot. But for a better book on the '45, Christopher Duffy's is the one to go for, or for a more concise read on purely military factors try Reid's 1745 (which according to Duffy is 'The first history of the '45 to be consistently informed from a sense of military realism' or words to that effect).
Black is one of the greatest authorities on European and world conflict and evidence of this can be found throughout the book. I am not certain if this is a strength or not, because at times it feels like this holds up the action rather than putting it into context.
The evidence tends to be of the top down variety, with lots of quotations from the Jacobite leadership and from their chief opponents, which is as it should be, but there is little evidence of those lower down the tree, eg 'local government' officials, which Rupert Jarvis and Jonathan Oates quote extensively. Having said that, the archives used are extensive and far more than most use.
Some of the maps in my copy (1997 edition) are poorly executed - the words are the right way up but the maps themselves aren't.
This is a good book and worth reading, but if you just want to read one book on the topic, this probably isn't the best.
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