Product Description

Posterity has not been kind to Douglas Haig, the commander of the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front for much of the First World War. Received wisdom, powerfully reinforced by the lacerating caricatures of him in "Oh What A Lovely War!" and "Blackadder Goes Forth", presents Haig as a donkey who sent lions to the slaughter in scarcely credible numbers at the Somme in 1916 and at Passchendaele a year later.Previous biographies of Douglas Haig have mired themselves in the bloody minutiae of his campaigns in France and Flanders. "The Good Soldier" re-examines Haig's record in these battles and presents his predicament with a fresh eye. More importantly, it re-evaluates Haig himself, exploring his character and convictions alongside both his early life and army career before 1914 and his unstinting work on behalf of ex-servicemen's organizations after 1918. Finally, in this definitive biography, the man emerges from the myth.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #124044 in Books
• Published on: 2008-11-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 528 pages

Review
"'The first proper biography of this most controversial of figures' (Hew Strachan, Chichele Professor of the History of War, University of Oxford) is now available in paperback. * 'The best and fairest biography of Haig that I have read.' - Allan Massie, Daily Telegraph * 'A subtle treatment of Haig's complex character... Mead's Haig is not a marble statue, nor a caricature butcher and bungler, but a man of very human strengths and weaknesses. The Good Soldier is the most successful attempt yet at disentangling the historical Douglas Haig from the twin excesses of Haigiography and donkeydom... Very readable.' - Gary Sheffield, TLS * 'Engrossing... Here at last comes some redress for perhaps the most maligned of the principal actors in that tragedy [of the First World War.' - Mary Skipwith, Field"

About the Author
Gary Mead was a journalist for the Financial Times for ten years and has worked extensively with the BBC. He is the author of The Doughboys: America and the First World War (2000).

Customer Reviews

An impressively judicious assessment of Haig's controversial career
There are few soldiers in British military history with a reputation as controversial as that of Douglas Haig. Lionized in his lifetime, his role as commander of the British Expeditionary Force in the First World War came under attack soon after his death, becoming the head donkey whose decisions led to the unjustifiable sacrifice of a generation of British men. Though more recent scholarship has much modified this view, his career remains a battleground of historical debates, one in which every work is assigned to one side or the other.

Based on the introduction, Gary Mead's biography of Haig would seem fit into the "redemptive" side of the Haig debate. Yet in many ways it transcends such labeling, offering the most judicious account of Haig's life yet published, one interspersed with critical assessments that offer a well-rounded view of Haig's personality and career. Mead endeavors to correct many of the myths that have formed around his subject, noting, for example, his embrace of new technologies such as the tank and the airplane as they began to appear on the battlefield. Yet at the same time he proves perfectly willing to criticize Haig for his stubborn belief in the viability of cavalry and his preference for officers who shared his views rather than those who might have introduced a healthy tone of dissent into discussions over operations.

All of this makes Mead's biography well worth reading, though it is not without its flaws. Perhaps the most glaring is the lack of explanation for how Haig came to assume such a prominent position in the army. Mead's account of his subject's early years notes the relative late start to his career and is excellent on the social aspects of the late Victorian British army, yet there is little sense of what marked out Haig's rise beyond his excellent connections with key officers and the British royal family. Even his ascension to the command of the BEF is addressed in a paragraph, with no analysis of the selection process involved. More on the subsequent development of his reputation beyond what is included in the introduction and afterword would also have been helpful, particularly given the degree to which it defines Mead's own task. What examination he includes is interesting (particularly in his endnotes), but ultimately leaves the reader wanting more.

These criticisms are relatively minor, though, when compared to the author's broader achievement. With its mixture of reasoned argument and comprehensible writing, Mead has succeeded in writing the most balanced and accessible study of Haig yet available. Anyone seeking to understand Haig's much-debated career would do well to start with this book before moving on to the contentious discussions that continue about it to this day.

A Good Soldier?
I find the title of this biography troubling, from the standpoint, that the butcher of the Somme is to be remembered as "Good." I have to wonder if the author is disappointed with Ford Maddox Ford's book by the same title. Gary Mead's biography may be balanced, but I wonder if it is a fair assessment. The author admits to being somewhat ingratiated with Douglas Haig's son, and cannot place all the cards on the table reference Haig's sanitized diary, in collusion with his wife; the casualty figures which were altered, and other fictions that have been recently uncovered, are all overlooked. Not bad, as biographies go, but not outstanding. Maybe he was just "Good;" but certainly he wasn't "Outstanding."