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God's General: Cromwell the Soldier
Contemporary Review, May, 2004
God's General: Cromwell the Soldier. Simon Robbins. Sutton Publishing. [pounds sterling]20.00. xii + 244 pages. ISBN 0-7509-2879-4. With the weakening of our conscious sense of being a Protestant nation, the catastrophic decline in Nonconformity and our changing attitude to English colonisation of Ireland, people's views of Cromwell as a man have plummeted.
Cromwell is seen as a regicide, dictator and proponent of ethnic-cleansing of the Irish. This has invariably meant that his reputation as 'a born soldier and a military genius' has suffered pari passu. This comprehensive and balanced study of Cromwell 'as a military figure', the first since T.S. Baldock's in 1899, seeks to redress this. Cromwell was not only a brilliant general but an administrator who gave England her first standing army. He may be compared to Marlborough and Wellington and his tactics still merit study. Ironically he had no military training. Although the author necessarily provides biographical information, his emphasis is therefore on the years between 1642 and 1651. Mr Robbins points to the wider changes going on in warfare and society generally during this period and reminds readers that, perhaps, Cromwell's greatest achievement was to realise that organisation and supply were more important than 'tactical or strategic brilliance'.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Contemporary Review Company Ltd.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group
