BARNETT : The swordbearers (fülszöveg)
Published in England in late October 1963 to almost unanimous critical praise, The Swordbearers assesses the characters of four supreme commanders in World War I – two German, one French, one English – and their influence upon epic events. In so doing, it presents a masterly interpretation of the major issues of the conflict and establishes itself as one of the few indispensable books on the subject. As Major-General J. F. C. Fuller has said, ". . . it opens up a badly neglected vista of military history - the impact of the personality of the general-in-chief on events."
Moltke, Jellicoe, Pétain, Ludendorff – these are the men; and via the vigorous and moving portraits Barnett provides of them under stress – their handling of events and their relations with colleagues, politicians, and subordinates – the whole panorama of the great war, its antecedents, conduct, and consequences, unrolls before the reader's eyes.
Colonel General von Moltke, the sensitive man in poor health, became a weeping wreck as the German invasion of France at the outbreak of the war slowed to a standstill before the battle of the Marne.
Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, Commander-in-Chief of the British Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutland, is seen as the cool, thoroughly professional sailor who led into battle a fleet he knew to be inferior to the German in quality of ships and armament, as well as in its rigidity and lack of enterprise.
General Philippe Pétain, another cool realist, saved the French army from collapse during the mutinies of 1917, kept it in being until the Americans arrived.
And finally, General Erich Ludendorff, the German supreme commander, personified the restless driving qualities of modern Germany, yet combined these with a fatal lack of wisdom in high policy.
The Swordbearers is the product of intensive research; its judgments, even when controversial, are based on thorough understanding. And whether he is describing in precise detail the Battle of Jutland, or the disintegration of Ludendorff, his army, and the German empire, Barnett's powers of narrative, character study, and lucid analysis are equally strong. The Swordbearers is in every way an exceptional book.
|
|
|
|
| KATALÓGUS | TARTALOM |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
 |