The First and Second Sikh Wars Paperback – Illustrated, November 30, 2007

Wonderful account of the Anglo-Sikh wars. Definitely favors the British perspective, but emphasizes the pride and robustness of the Khalsa Army. Since it is an army account, some of the reading can be dry. Some of the terminiology was difficult when reading casually.

Liked it

Great book. Fast delivery.

The book is poorly printed and has a bizarre layout The actual text itself is fine and for a history book has a shocking (read: what it should have) amount of maps.

The introduction by Jon Coulston is really excellent, and a model of good history writing. Coulston sketches in the historiography of the Sikh wars and gives succinct and balanced accounts of both the Sikh and British broader political and cultural contexts, which explain rather better than the main body of the book why this Imperialist adventure happened and why it succeeded so quickly, despite large helpings of incompetence and misdirection.The essentially Edwardian text by Reginald Burton, which takes one through the war from a very largely British military perspective, is meticulous, occasionally graphic and always redolent of the patriotic period in which the author was writing.