Books and the British Army in the Age of the American Revolution

Ira D. Gruber is Harris Masterson, Jr. Professor Emeritus of History at Rice University. From 1966 to 2009 he taught courses in early American and military history at Rice, the U.S. Military Academy, and the U.S. Army Staff College.
For more information about Ira D. Gruber, visit the Author Page.

“This revealing and methodical book significantly advances our understanding of the professional thinking of British military leaders in the eighteenth century.” --Times Literary Supplement

“This is a wonderful book. It provides real, tangible and quantifiable insight that will cause historians to reassess why certain eighteenth-century British field commanders acted as they did.”--Journal of NC Association of Historians

“A brilliant study. . . . It is impossible to do justice to this monumental work in a short review.”--Army History

"An interesting case study that charts the relationship between intellectual prescription and cultural (in this case military) practice."--Anglican and Episcopal History

"There is no better way to get inside the heads of the most important British military leaders of the Revolutionary era than to read what they read. This book will be an invaluable research and reference aid for all future writers on the topic. A deft, masterful, and thought-provoking work, written with Ira Gruber's accustomed grace and skill."--Fred Anderson, University of Colorado, Boulder

"Ira Gruber's valuable compilation shows how eighteenth-century British officers' book preferences may reveal that cadre's mentalité (for while it is hard to get into the officers' minds, we can at least get into their books) as well as their professional development. This work will be extremely important to readers of Early Modern military history in particular and students of Early Modern intellectual and publishing developments in general."--Holly Mayer, Duquesne University