A Soldier's Kipling (ePub)
Poetry and the Profession of Arms
Imprint: Pen & Sword Military
File Size: 11.2 MB (.epub)
Pages: 204
Illustrations: 20
ISBN: 9781526718556
Published: 18th June 2018
Rudyard Kipling was one of the most versatile writers of the Victorian age – a journalist, storyteller, historian and poet. One of the major subjects of his poetry was the British army and the way it waged its campaigns during Queen Victoria’s ‘little wars’, and it is this aspect of his writing that Edward Erickson explores in this absorbing and perceptive study.
Kipling’s military poems offer insights into the profession of arms and how soldiers were trained and fought in distant expeditionary campaigns – they bring to life the world of the Victorian soldier in the most evocative way. Although not a soldier himself, Kipling wrote about timeless themes of military and wartime service, the experience of combat, unit cohesion and individual courage.
A Soldier’s Kipling is an original contribution to the understanding of Kipling’s work and his times, and it should lead to a fresh appreciation of a facet of his writing that has not been focused on so closely before.
As featured in
Despatches Spring 2018
As featured in
English Literature in Transition
This is not a conventional analysis or run of the mill history of the work of the revered poet of the British Empire. The Author is a retired US Marine Corps officer and Academic well known for his authorative studies of the Ottoman Army and its campaigns in Gallipoli and Palestine. He takes the reader inside the poetry and looks outward. I thoroughly enjoyed reading what is a thought provoking study of Kipling’s works that sets out to link the poetry to the experiences of the modern soldier. The unintended benefit is that this perceptive narrative is a collection of ideal research material and background reading for the Battlefield Guide. The pick of the titles reviewed so far this year
Guild of Battlefield Guides
This is a splendid book for a relaxing winter’s evening and highly recommended.
Military Historical Society
... this reviewer found this volume a delightful, well written, informative and (above all), memorable volume, to the extent that it bids fair to become a Standard Reference Work on its subject.
NZ Crown Mines
About Edward Erickson
Edward J. Erickson was born in Norwich, NY and is professor of military history at the US Marine Corps University. He retired from a long distinguished US Army career which included service in senior positions in Europe and the Middle East, in particular in Turkey and Iraq. He is one of the foremost authorities on the Ottoman Army during the Great War. Among the many articles and books he has published are Ordered To Die: A History of the Ottoman Army in the First World War, Defeat in Detail: The Ottoman Army in the Balkans 1912-1913, Gallipoli: The Ottoman Campaign and Gallipoli: Command under Fire.