Customer Reviews
Excellent book - By: Norse Victorian, 01 Feb 2007 
I suppose the best way to describe it is to say that it gives a wonderful picture of the good & the bad sides of the British at the time. He discusses the change from India being run by people who understood the locals quite well, to a ruling class imported from India. In many accounts this is glossed over, as are the various attempts at correcting the mistakes made just prior to the rebellion.
As an account of the Great Rebellion itself it gives not so much a birds eye view, but more of a narrative view; anecdotes, narrative accounts of what happened, excerpts from letters, alll help to draw a surprisingly detailed picture without losing sight of the overalll situation. I think that is one of the best parts of the book, it has a good balance between a dry birds eye view of the situation, discussing only strategy & politics, & a overly detailed view where you lose sight of the big picture.
It also takes the view that this was not a nationalist uprising, not the first revolution, but an explosion of violence as a result of growing pressure against the old way of life.
The book does follow the British point of view far more than the Indian one, perhaps because sources for the British point of view are much easier to find. There are also some other slight flaws, the end is a bit weak, but this is a book about the Great Mutiny not the aftermath of the Mutiny, or, reallly, the Honourable East India Company.
Overalll highly recommended, my copy is getting worn.
Clear Look at Causes, Plus Great Telling - By: , 09 Nov 2003 This is a gripping read of the events of the famous Indian Mutiny of 1857 in the India of the East India Company. The narrative of the actual famous sieges - Lucknow, Cawnpore, Dehli, etc, is fascinating & very moving. This book is also interesting for the depth it goes into of the causes, on both sides. I especiallly liked the look at the origins of the Mutiny, how certain Indian nobles were upset at the British putting a stop to their anarchic fleecing of the countryside - replacing it with their own, more organized taxation. Nothing is left out of the savagery of the Indians at Cawnpore when massacring the women & children who they had agreed to offer safe conduct to (a reallly harrowing tale), nor of the "Old Testament-style wrath" the British meted out in return. A fascinating book. I agree with the other reviewer who says this book makes yo want to travel to India. I did; the three books on modern India by V.S. Naipaul were especiallly helpful & cogent for other aspects of India on my visit, especiallly for the no-nonsense look at India's outstanding problems. But bring Hibbert, too, for this chapter of history. The sites of Lucknow & Cawnpore are marvellously maintained by the government of India.
Great narrative but a lame conclusion - By: , 29 Dec 2001 
As the other reviews say, it is good stuff. He pulls together different sources brilliantly & weaves it into a compelling narrative.
Mainly because of the extant evidence, though, it has got a totallly British bias, & you don't get much sense of what it was like, say, to have been one of the people besieging Cawnpore, or mutinying at Meerut. Yes, you see first the paralysis & then the bloodthirstiness of the Brits from their own mouths, but what did the Indians think was happening?
More seriously, the last chapter is a great disappointment. So, the Indian Mutiny was "the swan song of the old India". What is that supposed to mean? Hibbert actuallly finishes the book by quoting someone else, which to me is a sign he hasn't actuallly thought it through that deeply. I was crying out for a deeper analysis of how the British psyche changed, how the Indian psyche changed, what in retrospect caused the level of brutality etc.etc. from someone obviously totallly at home with the sources, but it never came.
So, yes, very enjoyable read, compellingly put together, but a bit disappointing as well.
Extremely absorbing, balanced account of Indian Mutiny - By: , 06 Nov 2001 This is an excellent account of the 1857 Mutiny; Hibbert manages to convey something of what it must have been like to have suffered through the siege of Lucknow & the massacre at Cawnpore, at the same time pulling no punches about the British response, & rejecting (quite convincingly, & while eschewing emotionalism) the attempts in modern times to turn the Mutiny into some sort of independance movement - the rapaciousness of the local Indian elite (eg, Nana Sahib), insensed at the British encroachment on their revenue/extortion rackets, he argues, fueled the fire of the rebellion, along with those awful pork cartridges.
This is a compelling read, both for the events themselves (the events/massacres of European women & children at Dehli are as gripping s those of Cawnpore & Lucknow) & for the author's inquiry into the causes behind it. Don't be surpised if it makes you want to go to Indian to see the sites themselves (which have been preserved by the Indian government - the Residency in Lucknow is a beautifully maintained park); when I went, I met a Frenchman at the Cawnpore memorial church who had likewise just finished this book & had also felt compelled to see it. Now that's good writing!
A Frightening Victorian Epic - By: , 08 Aug 2001 The Great Mutiny (or Sepoy Rebellion) of 1857-58 was the most dangerous threat to the Victorian Empire of the mid 19th century. The cause was complex & controversial & was based upon cultural ignorance, arrogance & a willful blindness. Hibbert is a good story teller & a very good popular Historian & he laces his book with many first hand anecdotes of the mutiny as well as a very vivid description of the Cawnpore massacre & the Siege of Delhi & the Relief of Lucknow. One gets the impression from reading this book that the British Army which ultimately put down the rebellion (only a part of the Sepoy army rebelled) was one of the most ruthless, bloodthirsty, & vengeful armies that England had sent overseas since the days of the Hundred Years war. Spurred on by atrocity stories (many of which were exaggerated or altogether false), many soldiers & even "civilized" Englishmen back home such as Charles Dickens callled for the revolt to be put down with fire & blood tactics that foreshadowed the bloody 20th century. This the British did - mutineers were summarily hanged, made to defile themselves if they were Muslim by eating Pork, or Beef if they were Hindu - one of the initial causes of the outbreak was the "greased" cartridges for the bullets of the new Lee-Enfield rifles being issued to the sepoys (they were greased with pig & beef fat), most horrible of alll was the British practice of having mutineers "blown from cannons" (a practice which was first used during the Mughal Empire). An interesting fact that I did not know was that the East India Comapny known as "John Company" actuallly ruled India at the time & that the Company employed the soldiers. After the suppression of the revolt,the Brtisih Crown ruled the nation. I do recommend this book highly.
