Red Coat Green Machine: Continuity and Change in the British Army 1700 to 2000

Using the methods of social anthropology, this book looks at the ways in which the British Army functions as an organisation by considering the ideas, attitudes, and conventions of behaviour displayed by its members in order to understand its ‘organisational culture’. It is not a history of the British Army in any conventional sense, and there is interesting discussion of the ways in which formal, informal and functional structures exist side-by-side within the organisation. The book also has some interesting things to say about relations between officers and other ranks in earlier, pre-twentieth century periods.