The Journalist as Historian: William Howard Russell, 1820-1907
A.P. Ryan profiles William Howard Russell. Best known as the critical reporter of the Crimean War, Russell also served The Times as its correspondent during the American Civil War and the Franco-Russian campaign.
William Howard Russell is remembered as the forthright correspondent who showed up the incompetence of the powers that were— bureaucrats and high-ranking officers—in the Crimean War. Most people who have heard of him would agree that he looms up as a formidable early Victorian, carrying to the war-front self-confidence, pugnacity and the long winded-ness of the leader writers of those days. He appears as The Thunderer in partibus, the overthrower of Lord Aberdeen’s ministry, the unfair critic of Lord Raglan’s generalship and the highly efficient public relations officer of Florence Nightingale.
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