Memoirs of the Extraordinary Military Career of John Shipp

Shipp, John, 1784-1834Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.8
Word count
737K words
Chapters
74

Tags

English Originals General BiographyMilitary Legendary LivesAdventure JourneyMilitary CommandersInspirationSocial Observation

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Memoirs of the Extraordinary Military Career of John Shipp by John ShippAuthor: Shipp, John, 1784-1834,Language: English, Class: DS: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Asia, Release Date: Apr 7, 2010

Editor's review

This book is the military-career memoir left by John Shipp himself and belongs to the nineteenth-century English literature of military self-narration. Its value lies first in the "eyewitness perspective": the author narrates his military experience in the first person and preserves concrete details of soldiers' daily life, marching conditions and army life, which can provide primary material for studying the British military system of the time, overseas garrisons and related history in Asia. Second, the narrative tone is direct and dense with detail, giving a stronger sense of immediacy than ordinary military history; it is suited to reading as historical source material rather than pure entertainment. It should be noted that memoirs carry personal standpoints and the limitations of their era, and the judgments and evaluations in the book should be read alongside other materials. As a public-domain e-book, it is easy to obtain and complete in length, and is suitable for use as primary material in thematic reading.

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Reading tips

  1. Read the table of contents and chapter titles first to clarify the timeline before entering the main text.
  2. Take notes on people, places and unit numbers as you read, to help reconstruct the author's experience.
  3. Read alongside military histories of the same period, and distinguish personal narrative from historical fact.
  4. If using it for research, excerpt passages concerning daily military discipline and garrison conditions.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
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  11. 11
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  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58
  59. 59
  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. 63
  64. 64
  65. 65
  66. 66
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  68. 68
  69. 69
  70. 70
  71. 71
  72. 72
  73. 73
  74. 74

FAQ

What kind of text is this book? It is John Shipp's own memoir of his military career, a first-person account recording his experience and observations in the army. It is closer to eyewitness source material than to a systematic military history written by later scholars, and readers should note the author's personal standpoint and historical background.
Can I read this book if my English is not good? The original is in English and in a nineteenth-century style, with sentence structures and vocabulary that differ from modern English. Readers with weak English reading skills are advised to find a Chinese translation or introductory material first and then read against the original, otherwise they may give up because of language barriers.
What should I note when using it as historical source material? Memoirs rely on the author's memory and personal perspective and may contain selective narration, biased evaluations or factual errors. It is advisable to read them alongside official records, other people's recollections or research findings from the same period, treating the contents as clues rather than conclusions.

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About the author

Shipp, John, 1784-1834 Author · British · 1784–1834

John Shipp (1784–1834) was a British soldier who served in India and in various overseas postings. Drawing on his own military experiences, he wrote Memoirs of the Extraordinary Military Career of John Shipp, a first-person account of his service in India and elsewhere and of the people and events he encountered, which conveys a strong sense of eyewitness immediacy. Public information about his life is very limited: beyond the basic facts given above, little reliable record survives of his family background, education, or life after leaving the army. The library holds only one work by him, the memoir mentioned above, which is therefore the main textual source for understanding his personal experiences. In terms of genre, his writing belongs to the nineteenth-century tradition of British soldiers' autobiographical narratives, following the thread of personal experience in plain and direct prose, and it offers source material for the study of military life and social conditions in British India during his time.