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The Rise and Fall of the British Army, 1975–2025
- Author
- Ben Barry
- Narrator
- Mark Elstob
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury Publishing
- Publish Date
- 9 October 2025
- Run Time
- 18 hours 20 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
A new study of a critical period in the history of the British Army.
The last half century has seen society, technology, the character of conflict and the British Army itself all change greatly. From a low point in the 1970s, the Army’s war fighting capability increased in the 1980s in the face of a prospective war with the Soviet Union. This capability was then tested on operations from Kuwait in 1991 through to Afghanistan in 2001 and the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
There followed two decades of descent from this high plateau of military achievement. Mistakes made in Iraq and Afghanistan led to a decline in support for military deployments. Cuts to defence funding and botched equipment procurements also meant the British Army of 2021 was only half the size of that of 1970, and with much key fighting equipment either obsolete or approaching obsolescence.
Ben Barry served in the Army from 1975 to 2010, often in key staff appointments, and has worked closely with the Army in the following decade. This new study draws not only on his personal experience, but also on a very wide range of written sources complemented by interviews to provide a new interpretation of this period that challenges the existing narratives.
Critics Review
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Barry, who served in senior positions in the army until 2010, tells this history with candor. His book is authoritative, detailed, and readable.
Foreign Affairs
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An impressively detailed chronicle by an analyst well up to the task. Read it and weep.
Allan Mallinson, The Spectator
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The author is among the best-informed commentators on our armed forces.
The Times
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Ben Barry combines the intimate knowledge of the insider with the objectivity of the strategic commentator.
Sir Hew Strachan
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This highly authoritative book will please professional soldier and interested civilian alike.
Field Marshal Lord David Richards
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This timely book is a love letter to the British Army, written by a man whose experience of the army spans all of the five decades under review.
Dr Robert Lyman, co-author of 'Victory to Defeat: The British Army 1918–40'
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This is quite simply a superb discussion of the British Army's engagement with thinking and doctrine over recent decades.
Brian Holden Reid, Emeritus Professor of American History and Military Institutions, Department of War Studies, King's College London
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This excellent title offers profound insights.
British Army Review
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The book deserves recommendation to any audience interested in contemporary British defence policy and its evolving armed forces.
The Naval Review
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This is a landmark publication that will long remain the standard work on the subject.
The TLS
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This highly readable and compelling book deserves to be on the reading list of all serving officers and warrant officers of the British Army.
The RUSI Journal
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Authoritative, detailed and readable.
Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman
User Reviews
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Details
- Author
- Ben Barry
- Narrator
- Mark Elstob
- Duration
- 18 hours 20 minutes
- Release Date
- 9 October 2025
- ISBN
- 9781472856364
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury Publishing
- Genre
- Land forces and warfare, Military history: post-WW2 conflicts
Synopsis
Bloomsbury presents The Rise and Fall of the British Army, 1975 - 2025 by Ben Barry, read by Mark Elstob.A new study of a critical period in the history of the British Army.The last half century has seen society, technology, the character of conflict and the British Army itself all change greatly. From a low point in the 1970s, the Army’s war fighting capability increased in the 1980s in the face of a prospective war with the Soviet Union. This capability was then tested on operations from Kuwait in 1991 through to Afghanistan in 2001 and the 2003 invasion of Iraq.There followed two decades of descent from this high plateau of military achievement. Mistakes made in Iraq and Afghanistan led to a decline in support for military deployments. Cuts to defence funding and botched equipment procurements also meant the British Army of 2021 was only half the size of that of 1970, and with much key fighting equipment either obsolete or approaching obsolescence.Ben Barry served in the Army from 1975 to 2010, often in key staff appointments, and has worked closely with the Army in the following decade. This new study draws not only on his personal experience, but also on a very wide range of written sources complemented by interviews to provide a new interpretation of this period that challenges the existing narratives.
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