Chapter Three, The Army, 1894-1900 Summary and Analysis

Churchill leaves Cuba a full member of the Hussars and might easily spend his career in that organization, retiring with wealth and esteem. However, he is uninterested. Instead, he decides to pursue journalism and politics along with his military service. He decides to go to India in 1896 to patrol the area against insurgents. In his off days in Bangalore, he reads voraciously though more non-fiction, history and logic than anything else. He even reads all the old British newspapers of note he can get his hands on for decades and decades before.

In 1897, Churchill gets involved with the Hussars in India in the Malakand Field Force fighting against a group of Muslim Pathans, locals who resent Indian and British attempts to control them. During the conflict he joins the 35th Sikhs to advance...