".despite some thought-provoking and insightful analysis, The Victorians at War is a missed opportunity. Beckett has assembled a large corpus of material that could have been fashioned into a major and welcome analysis on the politics of command in the Victorian army. Moreover, it could have taken the debate forward by providing a useful counterfoil to Edward M. Spiers's The Late Victorian Army, 1868-1902 (1992). This book instead remains a collection of essays that needed more editorial care and closer linkages. Despite the modern advances in electronic publishing, the book is littered with spelling mistakes and typographical errors. Some unnecessary repetition signals that despite the claim that many of the chapters were substantially rewritten, they may have been done so in haste-however enjoyable they are to read.

" -Kent Fedorowich, Victorian Studies, Vol. 50 No. 2, Winter 2008.