British Counterinsurgency: From Palestine to Northern Ireland

click here for more details, find new or used items	John Newsinger Our price £71.99 (£70.00) New from £59.99 Used from £59.99 Pages: 233 (Hardcover) ISBN: 0333793854 Pub: Palgrave Macmillan Pub date: 2001-12-17 Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 648421

Reader Reviews:

The least-discussed issue in Britain? (8/9 people found this helpful)

It is a great pity that John Newsinger's historical account of episodes from the final stages of the British Empire in the 20th century has not received the notice that both the book and the topic deserve.
While many in Britain may imagine themselves to be better informed of both our nation's history and its darker moments than those in other countries, the reality is that very few people in Britain could offer a basic outline of major post-1945 conflicts in Malaysia, Cyprus, Kenya, Aden and elsewhere, less still why they occurred. When did you last see them mentioned in a history textbook, a TV documentary or even a library? Some of the British veterans and bereaved of these wars are currently campaigning for a memorial to their lost comrades - even that basic dignity has been denied those involved in wars we struggle to forget.
The topic of British involvement in the Third World and the development of military strategies for combating urban and rural guerrilla insurgency is certainly topical now that the Royal Infantry once again faces these challenges in Afghanistan and Iraq. Newsinger describes British political and military strategy in the conflicts of the British imperial break-up with the skill of one of Britain's finest though least known historians.
But he is equally keen to address the human rights catastrophes that very often result from policies of seeking military solutions to the political problems of other countries, and attempts by outside powers to enforce their will abroad. In an outstanding chapter on the British army's war against the Kikuyu tribe in central Kenya in the 1950s, Newsinger graphically highlights episodes of massacre, torture, rape and forced relocation of civilian populations that surely make this episode Britain's darkest hour in the second half of the 20th century. As Kenyan victims from that war attempt to pursue the British government in court, Newsinger provides a helpful background to these events. And while he opens our eyes to frightening atrocity and injustice, he avoids unprofessional exaggeration or over-simplification.
Some important episodes of this period, in Greece, Egypt, Indonesia, India and Southern Africa are neglected here, but reading this book will help to supplement our history textbooks with their missing pages and help those in Britain interested in issues of justice, peace and human rights, to better understand Britain's role in the world and the challenges ahead.
To discover how the British army was defeated in Palestine by Israel's future political leaders, why the SAS helped to protect the slave-owning Sultan of Oman, why national servicemen decapitated rebels in Malaya, what conduct in Cyprus and Ireland earned Britain censure at the European Court of Human Rights and that these and other such events ever took place, get hold of a copy.

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