Britain's part-time soldiers - Professor Ian Beckett

In this classic study, first published over 20 years ago, Ian Beckett gives a comprehensive and scholarly overview of the development of the amateur military tradition in Britain from the mid-sixteenth century to the present day. He shows how standing armies in Britain have been viewed with distrust and how the preference for amateur and temporary soldiers has heightened the importance of the auxiliary forces in defence against both foreign invasion and domestic disorder. His meticulously researched account of these part-time soldiers will be fascinating reading for anyone who is interested in or studying British military or social history.