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The Devil Soldier
by
Caleb Carr
s/t: The American Soldier of Fortune Who Became a God in China
A courageous leader who became the first American mandarin, Frederick Townsend Ward won crucial victories for the Emperor of China during the Taiping Rebellion, history's bloodiest civil war. Carr's skills as historian and storyteller come to the fore in this thrilling account of the kind of adventurer the...more
A courageous leader who became the first American mandarin, Frederick Townsend Ward won crucial victories for the Emperor of China during the Taiping Rebellion, history's bloodiest civil war. Carr's skills as historian and storyteller come to the fore in this thrilling account of the kind of adventurer the...more
Paperback, 384 pages
Published
January 8th 1992
by Random House
(first published 1992)
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Well researched and well written. Caleb Carr has written a couple of well known historical crime novels, THE ANGEL IN DARKNESS and The ALIENIST. However, prior to writing those he was best known as a military historian, and this book on an American mercenary operating in Imperial China during the 1860's falls in that category. Fans of his two novels moentioned above may not enjoy this book.
That said, this is an enjoyable read. Frederick Ward Townsend was a controversial figure in...more
That said, this is an enjoyable read. Frederick Ward Townsend was a controversial figure in...more
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("The American Soldier of Fortune Who Became a God in China." A rather over-dramatic and not exactly true subtitle...) This often engrossing work is a biography of Frederick Townsend Ward, the first commander of the Ever Victorious Army. Carr does an excellent job, considering that the Chinese Communists downplayed Ward’s role in history, even paving over his gravesite, and that a distant relative of Ward’s destroyed all his personal papers after his death. Carr is no Sinologist an...more
John
rated it
Recommends it for:
Those interested in the Taiping Rebellion, 'Chinese' Gordon, Colonial History, or Military History
An intruiging bit of obscured history within a greater event largely forgotten in the west. I knew extremely little about the Taiping rebellion, and was utterly clueless that western officers played a notable role - let alone that Fredrick Townsend Ward raised, trained, and led a large force of Chinese soldiers in the western model which, operating independently, played a significant role in the downfall of the Taiping cause. I have enjoyed Caleb Carr's historical writing, as well as his ficti...more
Fascinating true story of an american soldier of fortune who went to china during the taiping rebellion and made himself into the leader of the "Ever Victorious Army". I have a keen interest in men like this, men like Charles George Gordon (who inherited the Ever Victorious Army from Ward after he was killed in battle) James "Rajah" Brooke,real Lord Jim stuff and TRUE to boot. You can't beat it.
For history buffs, this is really a gem. I've read several books on the subject and this was by far the best researched and executed. It gets a bit long, but Caleb is also a fiction writer, so he is able to keep our interest, while not distorting the facts and the history.
Non-fiction. The story of Federick Townsend Ward, an American soldier of fortune in the 19th century, who founded and led into battle a private army of European, Filipino and Chinese mercenaries in Shanghai that became known as the Ever Victorious Army and helped end the Taiping Rebellion, the bloodiest war of era. Travelling in Asia and China in the mid-19th century, Ward missed the American Civil War, but became a central figure in the far bigger Taiping Rebellion. He eventually became a princ...more
Not everyone could have told this story. Carr's narrative style makes this sound almost fictional. It takes some discipline if you're not particularly interested in this era, but hey! everyone needs to build some character right?
Very boring at the beginning.. I couldn't finish it. I think I'll try it again sometime since it has some potential.
It was an interesting read of a period of time that does not get a lot of coverage in the history books.
Extremely technical, couldn't get into
This is the biography of Frederick Townsend Ward. He was one of the truly larger than life characters of the Victorian era. As a young man he got his start a s filibuster with Walker in Mexico. In later life he went to China where he was hired by the Emperor as a mercenary to put down the Tai-Ping rebellion (in which 20 million people were killed, 2nd only to WWII, and nobody ever mentions it). It is a fascinating book about an incredible time and place. A look at a slice of history not many peo...more
D
marked it as to-read
This one of the only books not packed away... so I guess I'll start it tonight. Not much time for reading, though, as I am working my way through the first two seasons of Friday Night Lights!! So incredibly good. Excuse digression.
I had heard that Carr's non-fiction was as compelling as his fiction. Not quite, but still a good history read.
Ward was a 19th century American expatriate in China who raised and trained a small but effective Chinese army to fight for the imperialists against the Taiping rebels. Much of his story had to be reconstructed from letters and papers of colleagues, since his own letters were destroyed. Somewhat slow going. Best in small doses. I finished several other books while reading this.
Great book about the little known role of an American on the Taiping Rebellion. The one thing I found missing were maps. Whenever I read a book with military tactics described in it, I need maps. Not just geographical maps, but maps that show the military tactics the author has spent so much time describing. Personally I think it would make a great movie.
i thought this would read more like a story or novel than like a military history. it was very dry. this isn't bad, but it's hard to concentrate on all of the small details and all of the names when you're half-asleep (i read before bed). so, i'm putting it aside in favor of something that isn't quite so dry.
Well-written, solid, and interesting bit of history. I only picked this up because of my respect for The Alienist, and wasn't disappointed. Carr uses this single historical figure to illustrate the time period, including England starting a war in order to sell more opium to the Chinese.
I didn't actually realize this book was a biography. I really expected it to be more in the vein of The Alienist, but it was informative and mostly entertaining. It was a bit difficult at times, the Chinese naming conventions, but still a fairly good, and informative, read.
I so enjoyed reading the thrilling "Alienist" by Caleb Carr that I was excited to find this book. Was a dreary follow up. Nothing like the compelling novel he crafted.
Very interesting historical book, and i learned a lot about China from back in the day...
Stopped reading it. Did not hold my interest. Topic was interesting. But writing was not.
A can't-miss biographical story delivered with craft and insight.
Pam
marked it as to-read
Bunny
marked it as to-read
Hadley
marked it as to-read
Rebecca Tversky
marked it as to-read
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Caleb Carr is an American novelist and military historian. The son of Lucien Carr, a former UPI editor and a key Beat generation figure, he was born in Manhattan and lived for much of his life on the Lower East Side.[1] He attended Kenyon College and New York University, earning a B.A. in military and diplomatic history. He is a contributing editor of MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History...more
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