The Wandering Army by Huw J. Davies adds a new perspective to long-established scholarly debates on the British way of war. Whereas most scholars agree the British navy holds a special place of honor in understanding any conceptual British way of war, Davies instead promotes a boots-on-the-ground approach centered on the expeditionary nature of British arms. In this telling, the British army’s ability to institutionally develop, distribute, and apply knowledge during the long 18th century led to a worldwide military enlightenment.
A reader in Early Modern Military History at King’s College in London and the author of three books on the period, Huw J. Davies is eminently qualified to write on the topic of the British army of the 18th and 19th centuries. He relies on an impressive array of original source documents in the form of personal correspondences, memoranda, journals, and campaign maps, many of which have been previously overlooked or inaccessible to scholars. The Wandering Army is an attractive book and benefits from a plethora of colorful maps, images, and figures. Perhaps most impressively, Davies research spanned four continents and included collections held at the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle, the Wellington Papers at the University of Southampton, the Sir Eyre Coote papers at Michigan University, the papers of the American Revolution Institute of the Society of the Cincinnati in Washington, D.C., the Punjab Archives in Lahore, the National Library of Australia, and the State Library of New South Wales in Sydney…to name only a few.
This combination of rich, original source material allows Davies to insightfully navigate and recreate the process of British officers’ observational and experiential learning throughout diverse and distant theaters of war. According to Davies, the need to face enemies who used novel tactics and strategies on unfamiliar terrain necessitated the need for the British army to learn and adapt to many new challenges. This need led officers and aristocratic elites to share their individual experiences and lessons learned via “informal knowledge networks” within their professional circles.[1] As Davies describes it, this spread of knowledge led to a military enlightenment and the professionalization of the British army. The descriptive analysis of how the British army learned by sharing doctrinal pamphlets, improving cartography, and conducting staff rides, cross training exercises, battle simulations, practice encampments, and war games is one of the many strengths of The Wandering Army. These new approaches for the preparation of military forces furthered the professionalization of the British army.
