Churchill's First War

The Leonard Lopate Show | May 27, 2014

Over a century ago, a young cavalry lieutenant wrote a riveting account of what he saw during his first major campaign, a war against tribal insurgents on the North-West Frontier. Winston Churchill's The Story of the Malakand Field Force, published in 1898, made his reputation as a writer and as a soldier. More than 120 years later it is still required reading for military commanders on the ground, both British and American. Author and foreign correspondent Con Coughlin tells the story of that campaign in Churchill's First War, a vivid piece of military history that gives rare insight into both the 19th-century 'Great Game' and the 21 century conflict that has now raged longer than the Second World War.

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