This classic book serves to fill a tremendous gap in narrative accounts of the mutiny, and demystifies lay assumptions. It begins with a sizeable background on the genesis of the British Raj in India - a move not deliberate but powerful enough to shape history for decades to come. The author delves in great detail into the causes of the mutiny, unlike preceding writers who mostly concentrated on the consequences. With the aid of personal knowledge and observation he attempts to pin point that latent power that drove the mutiny on. He provides a realistic account of all the important operations that took place, praising the heroic and criticizing the undeserving. He is careful not to overlay his work with too much tedious detail. So his writing remains lucid and interesting. The Indian Mutiny of 1857 captures successfully and uncompromisingly an event that was perhaps disorganized but large in scale; it deals with each individual geographical area separately, analyzing the causes and effects locally and nation-wide. It captures the spirit of the time, its people who fought and died, and the changing attitudes of the Raj, which was gradually losing control of its Empire.