Title: Anecdotal but not insightful
Product review: Farwell's title is somewhat misleading, as "Queen Victoria's Little Wars" includes substantial sections on the Crimean war, Indian Mutiny & Boer wars: the largest wars of Victoria's reign. Filled with anecdote, the book makes diverting reading, but contains little in the way of analysis and tends to give the impression that British military activities were more independent of the civil power than was the case. The wars in New Zealand which, proportionate to the numbers of combatants the British faced, required more soldiers than any other colonial wars, receive scant attention. Absent entirely is mention of British military activities in Australia, possibly because such activities were more genocidal than honourable in nature. Incursions into Central America are also unexamined. Highly entertaining, the book is ideal as a brief introduction to both well and lesser known aspects of Imperial history.
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