In 1853, the Crimean War began as an intensely romantic affair, with officers and soldiers alike taking to the fray with phrases like "death or glory" on their tongues and in their hearts. Acts of astonishing bravery, many of them by doctors, women, and children, were commonplace. But so was callousness and brutality. The war soon became an impersonal, long-range killing match that resembled, far in advance, the trench warfare of World War I.

Death or Glory is not a mere battle chronology, rather, it is a narrative immersion into conditions during what became arguably the most tragically botched military campaign, from all sides, in modern European history - and the most immediate precedent to the American Civil War. Edgerton paints a vivid picture of the war, from the Charge of the Light Brigade and the heroics of Florence Nightingale to the British soldiers.

He describes how leaders failed their men again and again; how women and children became unseen heroes; how the universally despised Turks fought their own war; and finally, and perhaps most importantly, why so many fought so bravely for what seemed a futile cause. By comparing these experiences with those of Northern and Southern soldiers during the more well-documented American Civil War, Edgerton contributes a new perspective on how soldiers in the mid-19th century experienced war, death, and glory.