Product Description

The history of the Western Front and the First World War is one of battles of attrition against an entrenched enemy, with terrible casualties suffered by both sides in some of the worst fighting ever. In this history the picture has emerged of British generals remote and detached from the reality of the trenches who repeatedly sent their men to die in pointless attacks against the enemy. This book, by the renowned historian of the First World War John Terraine, scrupulously researched and brilliantly written, takes a more objective and accurate approach to the figure of Haig - the supreme commander of the British Army - and to the history of the War.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #418257 in Books
• Published on: 2005-07-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 528 pages

About the Author
John Terraine is the eminent military historian and author. Four of his books on the First World War are available from Cassell.

Customer Reviews

Gruesome, but an excellent book
John Terraine does an excellent job of recording Douglas Haig's military career literally from his birth in 1861 to his death in 1928. He covers all the major campaigns Haig was involved in including the Nile campaign and South Africa. Part Two deals with the early battles of World War I, but the vast majority of the book (Part III) deals with the campaign in WWI directed under Haig as Commander-in-Chief. There is also a short epilogue on Haig's life after the war.

It says on the back of the book that Haig remains one of the most controversial figures of WWI. As Commander-in-Chief of the British Army on the Western Front he has been held responsible for the massacre of hundreds of thousands of his own soldiers in the muddy killing fields of Ypres and the Somme.

Undeniably WWI was an extremely bloody affair, but I should think that that charge could be laid at the door of every Commander involved on the Western Front. Haig had a rather bad relationship with David Lloyd George so it doesn't surprise that the PM never had anything positive to say about Haig. Besides, the chap was a politician, which should speak for itself. The one message I took home from the book is that the British Army most of the time was rather under-equipped and understaffed. Yet Haig still managed to beat the enemy in the field. So he can't have been all that bad.

As I said I found the book rather excellent but at times it can be quite a gruesome reading.

An uncrtical apology
This book sadly fails at the first hurdle of historical analysis. It fails to look at the subject matter objectively. Terraine is a Haig apologist. Now I do not hold to the character assinations that Winter carries out - a book equally unacceptable in that it also comes to a black and white conclusion - albeit at the other end of the spectrum.

Haig was a fascianting character and like most of us a mixture of good and bad, read Reid and/or Meade to get a more rounded and more credible biography.