Description: Recent studies of the British Army during the First World War have fundamentally overturned historical understandings of its strategy and tactics, yet the chain of command that linked the upper echelons of GHQ to the soldiers in the trenches remains poorly understood. In order to reconnect the lines of communication between the General Staff and th
Review Quotes:
'This is an ambitious and rich study by Peter E. Hodgkinson, whose prosopographical analysis of the British army's commanding officers (COs) addresses four central questions: Who were these men? How competent were they at their posts? What qualities made them good officers? And did the British army create a meritocracy by the end of the war? ...This is a remarkable piece of scholarship, a fine example of the Birmingham school of military history.' - Geoffrey Hayes, University of Waterloo, H-Net: Humanities and Social Science Reviews Online