British Military Spectacle: From the Napoleonic Wars Through the Crimea

Often ridiculed for their constrictive splendor, British army uniforms of the early nineteenth century nonetheless played a powerful role in the troops’ performance on campaign, in battle, and as dramatic entertainment in peacetime. Scott Hughes Myerly reveals how these ornate sartorial creations, combining symbols of solidarity and inspiration, vivid color, and physical restraint, enhanced the managerial effects of rigid discipline, drill, and torturous punishments, but also helped foster regimental esprit de corps. Myerly also explores the role of the resplendent uniform and its associated gaudy trappings and customs during civil peace and disorder—whether employed as public relations through spectacular free entertainment, or imitated by rioters and rebels opposing the status quo. Dress, drills, parades, inspections, pomp, and order: as this richly illustrated book conducts us through the details of the creation, design, functions, and meaning of these aspects of the martial image, it exposes the underpinnings of a mentality—and vision—that extends far beyond the military subculture into the civic and social order that we call modernity.