The Good Soldier by Gary Mead
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.
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 *
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 *
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).
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781843542810 |
| ISBN 10 | 1843542811 |
| Title | The Good Soldier |
| Author | Gary Mead |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Atlantic Books |
| Year published | 2008-11-01 |
| Number of pages | 528 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |