The Crimean War is one of history's most compelling subjects. It encompassed human suffering, woeful leadership and maladministration on a grand scale. It created a heroic myth out of the disastrous Charge of the Light Brigade and, in Florence Nightingale, it produced one of history's great heroes. New weapons were introduced; trench combat became a fact of daily warfare outside Sebastopol; medical innovation saved countless soldiers' lives that would otherwise have been lost. The war paved the way for the greater conflagration which broke out in 1914 and greatly prefigured the current situation in Eastern Europe.

“Trevor Royle, a very well-respected military historian, has written a new and up to date account of [the Crimean] war, giving proper attention to the Russian side. His book is gripping . . .” —Norman Stone

“a well-written, thorough study of what can be considered the first modern war.” —New York Times Book Review

...a sound and solid description of the Crimean War.
-Victorian Studies