More balanced biographies are "Charley Gordon—An Eminent Victorian Reassessed" (1978) by Charles Chenevix Trench and "Gordon—the Man Behind the Legend" (1993) by John Pollock. Mark Urban argued that Gordon's final stand was "significant" because it was "...a perversion of the democratic process" as he "managed to subvert government policy", making the beginning of a new era where decision-makers had to consider the power of media. In "Khartoum—The Ultimate Imperial Adventure" (2005), Michael Asher puts Gordon's works in the Sudan in a broad context. Asher concludes: "He did not save the country from invasion or disaster, but among the British heroes of all ages, there is perhaps no other who stands out so prominently as an individualist, a man ready to die for his principles. Here was one man among men who did not do what he was told, but what he believed to be right. In a world moving inexorably towards conformity, it would be well to remember Gordon of Khartoum."