The British Military Revolution of the 19th Century

From the Crimean War through the Second Boer War, the British Empire sought to solve the “Great Gun Question”—to harness improvements to ordnance, small arms, explosives and mechanization made possible by the Industrial Revolution. The British public played a surprising but overlooked role, offering myriad suggestions for improvements to the civilian-led War Office. Meanwhile, politicians and army leaders argued over control of the country’s ground forces in a decades-long struggle that did not end until reforms of 1904 put the military under the Secretary of State for War. Following the debate in the press, voters put pressure on both Parliament and the War Office to modernize ordnance and military administration. The “Great Gun Question” was as much about weaponry as about who ultimately controlled military power. Drawing on ordnance committee records and contemporary news reports, this book fills a gap in the history of British military technology and army modernization prior to World War I.

U.S. Army veteran and former software developer Daniel R. LeClair is a military historian with the United States Air Force. He lives in Enid, Oklahoma.

Daniel R. LeClair
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 286
Bibliographic Info: 52 photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2019
pISBN: 978-1-4766-7499-5
eISBN: 978-1-4766-3859-1
Imprint: McFarland

Preface 1
Introduction 4
“Pregnant with Disastrous Muddle” 19
“The War Will Not Last a Month” 45
“More Powerful Than the Charge of Cavalry” 71
“Steering Among the Designs of Rival Inventors” 93
“A New Era of Great Guns” 132
An “Epoch of Change and Improvement”? 168
“New Measures Demand New Men” 204
Conclusion: “A Projectile to Be Fired by the Royal Navy” 233
Chapter Notes 237
Bibliography 255
Index 269

“LeClair’s book is an impressive work of historical research in the field of science and technology that is in line with the current trend of historiographical renewal… LeClair shows great mastery in his understanding of the workings of government administrations… Extremely well-documented… Rich and abundant… LeCLair’s book enriches our knowledge of British history in the nineteenth century, making a technical subject accessible and showing us, through old British newspapers, its societal and national resonance.”—H-Net Reviews