Wilson'S War by John Spencer

Wilson'S War by John Spencer

Today, just as he was a century ago, Field-Marshal Sir Henry Wilson is an archetypal 'love him or hate him' character. An agile mind, a sharp, witty and sometimes wicked tongue, and the author of diaries full of the kind of coruscating remarks that a modern tabloid newspaper editor only dreams of. Wilson enjoyed hobnobbing with politicians as much as with his fellow soldiers, often to the chagrin of both 'frocks' and 'brasshats'. The former, so the accepted narrative goes, found him pliable, na ve and ready to do their bidding. The latter, we are told, found him untrustworthy, mendacious and shallow. Yet in his lifetime Henry Wilson's many genuine admirers included leading figures in both the political and military establishments.

Unlike many of his peers, Wilson was unable to present evidence in his own defense in the Battle of the Memoirs which followed the Great War. Soon after his death at the hands of Irish republican assassins his reputation was ruined by the publication of a biography based on his outspoken diaries. Wilson's enemies had their suspicions confirmed, his friends too often found themselves criticized in his late-night scribblings.

More recent scholarship has examined Wilson's interventions in the cause of Irish Unionism and revealed a 'political soldier' willing and able to fight for this in the corridors of power. This study concentrates instead on Wilson's impact on the development and execution of British military policy during the Great War. Wilson's contribution to the British Army's preparations for war is familiar to military historians, his role in shaping policy in the final 18 months of the conflict deserve greater attention.

In 1917 Wilson disagreed with the costly attritional strategy of both Sir Douglas Haig, the commander of the British forces in France, and Sir William Robertson, the government's principle military adviser at the War Office. It was a skepticism shared by British Prime Minister David Lloyd George who found Wilson's views refreshingly different. As a result, Wilson effectively put paid to a new British offensive in early 1918 and was instrumental in setting up the Supreme War Council, designed to better coordinate Allied military strategy. He then dominated the work of this body, setting its strategic priorities and putting in place structures which eased the adoption of unity of command on the Western Front.

As this study shows, Wilson was neither the dupe of politicians, nor the hapless handmaiden to greater military minds than his. Instead, his diplomatic skills helped preserve the brittle Anglo-French alliance, both in the early stages of the war and towards its end. His period as Chief of the Imperial General Staff from February 1918 saw him successfully walk the tightrope between politicians and military leaders and maintain fragile civil-military relations. In the aftermath of the conflict, Wilson helped shape Britain's imperial future, for better and for worse.

John Spencer is a middle school photojournalism and computer teacher in urban Phoenix, Arizona. Over the last eleven years, he has taught social studies, language arts, language acquisition and technology, along with his experience in professional development and teacher coaching. He is a frequent keynote and conference speaker who recently delivered an address at the White House Future Ready Summit. His research experience includes writing a chapter in The Nature of Technology textbook and winning the NAU Education Technology Graduate Award for his work around transforming professional development. He is an avid writer whose work has been featured in Kappan Magazine, The Answer Sheet, and Edutopia. He is the author of Wendell the World's Worst Wizard and co-founder of Write About. He blogs regularly at spencerideas.org.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781912866274
ISBN 10	1912866277
Title	Wilson'S War
Author	John Spencer
Series	Wolverhampton Military Studies
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Helion & Company
Year published	2021-04-28
Number of pages	224
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable