Cornwallis

“[A] well researched [biography].”—Gerard DeGroot, Times (UK) “Richard Middleton, in this defensive biography of Cornwallis, the first for almost half a century, proves himself an able historian who has mastered the relevant sources. . . . [Cornwallis’s] efforts are recorded diligently by Middleton.”—Paul Lay, Sunday Telegraph “Never less than fair and consistently entertaining.”—Ferdinand Mount, Times Literary Supplement “Middleton has written both a biography and an important work of history. . . . Middleton makes perceptive comments on Cornwallis’s command in America [and] puts this in the context of a career of imperial service that includes posts of responsibility in Britain, Germany, India and Ireland.”—Jeremy Black, Catholic Herald “Richard Middleton vividly narrates the surprising and revealing life of Britain’s leading general during the Age of Revolutions. In lucid prose and telling detail, Cornwallis reappears as a sensible, progressive, and effective leader in crises that both shook and rebuilt the British Empire.”—Alan Taylor, author of American Revolutions: A Continental History, 1750–1804 “A comprehensive, thoughtful, and nuanced biography of a leading British soldier and administrator whose career spanned three continents during a tumultuous half century of war and revolution. In this major reassessment, the general best known for sustaining a defeat that guaranteed American independence emerges as an unusually capable, humane, and—by the standards of his own age—enlightened servant of empire.”—Stephen Brumwell, author of George Washington: Gentleman Warrior “Scholarly yet accessible to general readers, Richard Middleton’s new biography of Cornwallis captures his pivotal role in events in America, India and Ireland. Based on a heroic trawl through a great mass of primary sources, notably Cornwallis’s voluminous papers, this book will surely endure as the standard life of this eighteenth-century imperial soldier.”—Stephen Conway, author of History of the British Army, 1714–1783