Military intervention in Britain : from the Gordon riots to the Gibralter incident /

Babington, former member of the British Army and former circuit judge, reviews the use of armed force to aid civil power in Britain from the Middle Ages to modern times. Most of the book is devoted to the past two and one-half centuries, beginning with the famous Riot Act of 1715. The act was the basis for the proclamation read to discourage "tumultuous and riotous assemblies." The proclamation was a paper barrier against serious disorders in a society that traditionally had little tolerance for either professional armies or professional police forces and identified both as instruments of un-English tyranny. When disturbances of economic or political origins threatened, overstretched local police forces had to be buttressed by militia or regulars, although the soldiers--especially the regulars--loathed domestic duties of this nature. As racial and terrorist disturbances have been added to traditional types of disorders in the present century, British policy have become somewhat more militarized, while military formations earmarked for support of civil authorities have grown more specialized. The text is refreshingly free of misprints, although there are a couple of hair-raising misdatings of important events. The study is based on a rather conventional selection of books and articles, parliamentary reports, and an assortment of documents from Home Office and War Office holdings in the Public Record Office. A good, general survey, laudable as an introduction to a complicated, intriguing, and timely subject. Upper-division undergraduates and above. -R. H. Thompson, Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis