The Crimean War: The Truth Behind the Myth

Contemporary Review, Oct, 2004

The Crimean War: The Truth Behind the Myth. Clive Ponting. Chatto & Windus. [pounds sterling]20.00. xvi 379 pages. ISBN 0-7011-7390-4. The terms 'truth' and 'myth', especially when combined, are now very fashionable amongst a certain class of writers. Authors who use the terms let readers know from the start that they are going to get an 'expose' which, as far as the author is concerned and for the first time ever, tells the 'truth' by exposing earlier, false histories or 'myths'.

The difficulty with this survey history is finding substance to support the exaggerated language. The author sees the war as a 'contest for power and influence in the Ottoman empire that seriously affected the strategic interest of all the major European powers'. The war, and the cries for reform which it inspired, were 'forgotten' in Britain after its end in 1856 and, he argues, this had disastrous effects on British life and power. The history of the war and its diplomacy follows fairly standard lines. One is therefore sometimes at a loss to know where to look for the 'truth' and the 'myth'. The answer is that the true history of the war is of big-power political manoeuvring whilst the 'myth' refers to the popular concentration not on the war but on Florence Nightingale and the Charge of the Light Brigade. (T.B.)