"At first a spontaneous and temporary response to threats of invasion and internal rebellion, the British Volunteer became a permanent feature of military organization in the mid-Victorian era, eventually evolving into the territorial soldier of the twentieth century. Presented here is a general history of the Volunteer forces together with a detailed account of the experience of two Midland counties - Leicestershire and Rutland. Thus both the intensely local dimension of what were initially ad hoc town and village corps, and the national significance of the British volunteer tradition are explored." "Spanning three centuries, from the early eighteenth to the mid-twentieth century, this book charts the evolution, and the persistence, of a recurring phenomenon. It explains the exact origin and nature of the Napoleonic Volunteer Force and its mounted arm, the Yeomanry; the Victorian Rifle Volunteers and the Territorials of the twentieth century, as well as the Home Guard of 1940 and its little-known predecessor, the Volunteer Training Corps of the First World War." "Illustrated with twenty-four pages of contemporary black-and-white illustrations and set firmly in its social and political context, with careful attention paid to the organization, development and military role of the Volunteer forces, this is the story of a distinctly British institution."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved