Customer Reviews

Culloden

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Prebble skillfully negotiates an overwhelming mass of data in a readable, engaging way that makes this essential reading for anyone interested in the most important event in Highland Scottish history.

The author constantly shifts between micro and macro accounts of the battle and its aftermath, carefully depicting how the drama's players on every social level were affected. Footmen, clansmen, princes, ministers, wives, captains, children--every character here, even those with the briefest cameos, is an actual person made real to the reader through what must have been a lifetime of research. More than half of the book describes events that occurred after the battle--while the book does lose some momentum, nothing feels extraneous or unnecessary. Prebble also expressly refrains from looking into the roots or motives of the Jacobites (his barely-sympathatic disdain for the Young Pretender is palpable) any more than necessary. This may seem strange, considering the subject matter, but it allows him to focus on his role as a social historian. It is primarily the *people* that he cares for, and this is commendable. An invaluable resource for anyone looking for a place to start in understanding the fate of the clans.

Culloden by John Prebble is a masterpiece. He writes with such detail that you can see in your mind's eye the British soldiers in their red coats marching through the mud towards Drummossie Moor. He describes the tired hungry highlanders as they line up for battle in clan formations with clarity. As with all Mr. Prebble's works, this is a window into history. Very thorough and complete.

Each chapter tries to explain the view from both the British and the Rebel sides. The "March from Nairn" describes the Royal Army and its makeup as it marches north. Then Chapter 2, "Drummossie Moor" explains the battle in amazing detail from both sides. Chapter 3 "Inverness" details the immediate aftermath as Cumberland moves into Inverness and begins his lockdown of the Highlands and how the citizens faired. Chapter 4 "Fort Augustus" really hit me hard. It explained how the inhabitants, most innocent suffered the soldiers revenge or indiscriminant execution as they hunted rebels. The children, woman suffered. The clans were torn apart. All in an effort to find the fugitive Prince Charles. Chapter 5 "The Prisoners" tells the terrible fate of those captured and placed in prison or on hulks in England for months or years before being executed or at best deported to the colonies. There is so much more than just the battlefield. I now understand why this was the beginning of the end for the Scottish clans.

John Prebble uses many eye witness accounts to give you the 1746 perspective. It helps ground you as you read so that you do not put 20/21st century reasoning into use. I like how Prince Charles and the Duke of Cumberland are described but kept in the background for the most part. Both of them have great biographies. In Culloden the Common soldier "Thomas Lobster" and the Highlanders are the main characters. There struggle and what the battle meant to them, both during and in the after math. We also see how their families suffered or celebrated and how the general citizens of England and Scotland reacted. It is an amazingly complicated time in history. One thing for sure it is not at all romantic rebellion or a chivalric victory that it sometimes is portrayed. John Prebble's book Culloden gives it all new depth.

The battle of Culloden was, more or less, the last gasp of Scottish independence from the crushing weight of English imperialism. "Bonnie Prince Charlie" offered a hope of returned independence for the more or less feudal Highland clans of Scotland and led them on a short but impressive "invasion" of England, which shortly thereafter turned into a retreat, and ultimately a crushing, bloody defeat at the battle of Culloden. The British, under the management of "Butcher Cumberland" used this as an excuse to exterminate ruthlessly the Highlanders, which they did over the next two years. Prebble tells this whole story brilliantly, especially because his focus is not on the grand exploits of kings and princes, but on the experience of the common people and especially the common soldier. This is an excellent book to read, in order to be reminded of what Hegel called "the slaughter-bench of history": whatever its accomplishments, Western history is a history of ruthless imperialism.