Wellington's Charge: A Portrait of the Duke's England

This book covers the lifetime of the Duke of Wellington and the political and social changes in England in the course of his life and his part is some of those changes.

What is particularly helpful is the comprehensive overview which relates
significant events to one another which had been to me before a list of
unconnected dates remembered from school days. The book gives a sense of consequence and unfolding direction in history.
The book, which is published in paperback and is only 314 pages, is written by a teacher of history with a lifetime of teaching experience. It is readable and its author has a waspish humour. It would be suitable as a resource book for students studying this period for examination. The test is that I read it twice (!) with almost more pleasure the second time round.
It's relevance to many contemporary issues is remarkable. I finished the book grateful to have had the opportunity through reading it, of understanding our own history more fully and grateful for the often qualitative leadership in the early 19th Century which so contributed to our English heritage and our present freedoms, quality of life and governance as a developed nation.
I had learned that it was better for a national hero to die at the height of his glory rather than go on to become unpopular in politics i.e. Nelson in contrast to Wellington. Using the Duke
as the anchor for a historical overview challenged that view thoroughly in terms of national contribution.
I am sure there will be a number of readers like myself who will be glad to have this book drawn to their attention.

Wellington's Charge by Berwick Coates (0/0 people found this helpful)

Subtitled 'A portrait of the Duke's England', Wellington's Charge offers a clear and comprehensive view of the place and times from the l780s to the l850s with the man himself as the charismatic personality at its hub. Wellington lived to the good old age of 83, being born in the reign of George III and dying in that of Victoria in the year following the opening of The Great Exhibition. After achieving victory for the allies against Napolean at Waterloo he entered politics, serving variously as cabinet minister and prime minister, and ultimately as a 'kind of universal umpire, consulted by politicians and royalty alike'. He also became Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire, Constable of the Tower, Head of Trinity House, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports and Chancellor of Oxford University. For the Duke, work was the antidote to every ill. The first half of the nineteenth century was a ferment, with unrest at home and abroad, change and reform, trade and invention, the precursor of the modern age. This accessible and idiosyncratic history is an aid to understanding our world today.

A lively read (0/0 people found this helpful)

A lively read with an intimate and likeable authorial voice, Berwick Coates' book gave me an idea of how a well-informed and clear-headed historian can use his knowledge to offer the reader well-founded hstorical speculations. "Wellington's Charge" is both a vivid portrait of Wellington's England and an accessible insight into the historical process.

Wellington's Charge - a good read (1/1 people found this helpful)

The author has provided a grand sweep through the history of England for the late 18th century and the first half of the 19th - the lifetime of the Duke. His style is eminently readable, full of interesting, and often amusing, background details. The period is treated by considering successive four or five-year sections and the flavour of each is well brought out. The book comes across as though the author were speaking directly to the reader and Berwick Coates is to be commended for such an excellent and absorbing account. I thoroughly recommend Wellington's Charge.

Brilliant (3/3 people found this helpful)

Wellington's Charge is a hugely enjoyable read that pitches its narrative in such a way as to enrich the perspective of the informed and encourage the enthusiasm of the general reader. The book doesn't attempt chart the life of the great man but rather provides a broad impression of the period using the Duke as the ever-present point of reference. The style is relaxed and easy going which clearly belies a rich understanding of the period and the characters it produced.

The book would provide a useful starting point for a student of the period but probably comes into its own as a popular and entertaining, yet well crafted, personal take on a well-ploughed furrow. It achieves what so many popular histories fail to achieve: it makes it interesting. The author sensibly doesn't attempt to tackle original research or, as might be tempting with such an over-worked topic, take shelter behind historiographical analysis. The author is not afraid to provide his own theories and opinions which are, though well informed, personal and unique and, as such, refreshing and original in themselves. Complex political, economic and social ideas are tackled with masterly confidence rendering them so understandable as to make you wonder why you ever struggled with them in the first place. You could read this book in three or four days but you'll find yourself coming back to it for years to come. It is not a book for those interested in Wellington or the period; it is a book for those interested in history by a man for whom history is quite obviously his passion. Go and buy it.

Wellington's Charge: A Portrait of the Duke's England

Berwick Coates

Reader Reviews:

Wellington's Charge (1/1 people found this helpful)

Wellington's Charge by Berwick Coates (0/0 people found this helpful)

A lively read (0/0 people found this helpful)

Wellington's Charge - a good read (1/1 people found this helpful)

Brilliant (3/3 people found this helpful)

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