Military Leadership in the British Civil Wars, 1642-1651: 'The Genius of this Age'

Despite the wealth of British Civil Wars studies, little work addresses the nature of military leadership effectiveness in terms of the eventual result -parliamentary victory. It is no longer sufficient to credit religion, economics, localism or constitutional concepts for the outcome without considering the role of effective military leadership. The study of human conflict illustrates a simple, immutable truth -the finest, most inspired or motivated, well-trained, disciplined or experienced force is quite like a modern cruise missile. Without effective guidance, it is no more than a collection of very expensive parts.For the general military history reader, the work provides a concise strategic and operational narrative of the British Civil Wars of 1642-51 in northern England and Scotland. For historians, it offers an additional causative explanation for ultimate parliamentary victory. As a study of effective military leadership, it proposes, through a case study analysis based on a framework of characteristics and behavior of specific commanders from the wildly successful to the abysmal failure, a model of effective military leadership for present and successive generations of military, naval and air officers at all levels of command.

About the Author

Stanley D.M. Carpenter, a Professor of Strategy and Policy at the United States Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, currently serves as the Deputy Strategy and Policy Division Head for the Naval War College's College of Distance Education. Additionally, he serves as the Naval War College Command Historian. A United States Naval Officer since 1979 in both the Active and Reserve Components, Captain Carpenter has held three Commanding Officer billets and is a Surface Warfare Officer having served in cruisers, destroyers and amphibious ships and Reserve support units. His major field of research is seventeenth and eighteenth-century British Military and Naval History.