From Liddell Hart to Joan Littlewood: Studies in British Military History

Description

This volume brings together a selection of Brian Bond's most interesting contributions to books and journals on British military history in the 20th century. They are arranged around three large subjects: the First World War, the interwar decades, and the Second World War with concluding reflections on the author's `Farewell to Arms' at the end of a distinguished career in the Department of War Studies at King's College, London. Brief new introductions have been written to provide background information and contexts for each essay. ## Sir Basil Liddell Hart's name appropriately forms part of the titles since he was the author's original inspiration and mentor. His early career and influential publications on the First World War are critically discussed as is his later `partnership' with the reforming War Minister, Lesley Hore-Belisha. Professor Bond also acknowledges his tremendous debt to his research supervisor and `founder' of War Studies, Sir Michael Howard. Other essays provide fascinating examples of the author's main interests, including the Western Front and civil-military relations; the significance of post-1918 war memoirs; and the nadir of the Army's fortunes between the World Wars and its performance in France and Belgium in 1939-40. This section is complemented by case studies of Field Marshals Gort and Ironside. ## In recent years Professor Bond has been a leading critic of the `Lions led by Donkeys' school who have misrepresented and denigrated Britain's achievement in the First World War. His target, the concluding essay in this volume, are the historical shortcomings of the stage and film version of "Oh! What a lovely War" - hence the inclusion of Joan Littlewood's name in the title.

Brian Bond spent most of his teaching career at King's College London where he played a role in developing the Department of Wars Studies from its very early days in the 1960s. He was awarded a personal chair in Military History and was also appointed a Fellow of the College (FKC). He was President of the Commission for Military History (BCMH) from 1986 to 2006, and was a Visiting Fellow at Brasenose College and, later, at All Souls College, Oxford. He delivered the Lees Knowles Lectures at Cambridge in 2000, published two years later as "The Unquiet Western Front". His other numerous publications range, in time, from "The Victorian Army and the Staff College" (1972) to "Britain's Two World Wars against Germany" (2014). Other noteworthy books include "British Military Policy between the Two World Wars" (1980) and " Survivors of a Kind. Memoirs of the Western Front" (2008). He has been extremely fortunate to be able to combine an academic career in London while living most of his life, with his wife Madeleine, in a beautiful village in the Thames Valley.