The Reason Why
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Yellowed
In the annals of military catastrophe, few episodes are as haunting or as grimly spectacular as the Charge of the Light Brigade, and Cecil Woodham-Smith's The Reason Why stands as the definitive account of the human folly and aristocratic pride that sent 673 British cavalrymen thundering into the Valley of Death at Balaclava in 1854. The narrative centres on two deeply flawed men — the imperious Lord Cardigan and the brooding Lord Lucan — whose bitter personal rivalry, rooted in the rigid class structures of Victorian England, proved as lethal to their own men as any Russian cannon. Set against the broader backdrop of the Crimean War, the book chronicles the catastrophic breakdown in command that turned a military blunder into one of history's most iconic — and tragic — acts of obedience. Woodham-Smith brings to this dark chapter of British history the forensic precision of a scholar and the narrative drive of a born storyteller, drawing on extensive primary sources to indict not just two feuding generals, but an entire system of purchased commissions and aristocratic incompetence. Her prose is measured yet devastating, allowing the facts to accumulate into a damning portrait of institutional failure. First published in 1953, The Reason Why remains essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand how courage and stupidity can, in the same terrible moment, become inseparable — leaving the reader to wonder how much has truly changed.
Author: Cecil Woodham-Smith
Format: Hardback
Genre: Military history
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Yellowed
In the annals of military catastrophe, few episodes are as haunting or as grimly spectacular as the Charge of the Light Brigade, and Cecil Woodham-Smith's The Reason Why stands as the definitive account of the human folly and aristocratic pride that sent 673 British cavalrymen thundering into the Valley of Death at Balaclava in 1854. The narrative centres on two deeply flawed men — the imperious Lord Cardigan and the brooding Lord Lucan — whose bitter personal rivalry, rooted in the rigid class structures of Victorian England, proved as lethal to their own men as any Russian cannon. Set against the broader backdrop of the Crimean War, the book chronicles the catastrophic breakdown in command that turned a military blunder into one of history's most iconic — and tragic — acts of obedience. Woodham-Smith brings to this dark chapter of British history the forensic precision of a scholar and the narrative drive of a born storyteller, drawing on extensive primary sources to indict not just two feuding generals, but an entire system of purchased commissions and aristocratic incompetence. Her prose is measured yet devastating, allowing the facts to accumulate into a damning portrait of institutional failure. First published in 1953, The Reason Why remains essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand how courage and stupidity can, in the same terrible moment, become inseparable — leaving the reader to wonder how much has truly changed.