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Douglas Haig, 1861-1928 (Hardcover)
Loot Price: R4,180
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Douglas Haig, 1861-1928 (Hardcover)
Series: Routledge Library Editions: Historical Security
Expected to ship within 12 - 17 working days
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For seventy years Douglas Haig had been portrayed on the one hand
as the 'Butcher of the Somme' - inept, insensitive and archaic; and
on the other as the 'Saviour of Britain' - noble, unselfish and
heroic. This polarised, strident and ultimately inconclusive
argument had resulted in Haig becoming detached from his own
persona; he had become a shallow symbol of a past age to be
pilloried or praised. The middle ground in the Haig debate had been
as barren as No Man's Land. There should be no mystery about Haig.
Certain from a very early age of his own greatness, he preserved
every record of his achievements: diaries, letters, official
reports etc. The opinions of his contemporaries are likewise
readily available. But until this book the material had not been
used to construct a complete and accurate picture. Critics and
supporters have raided the historical records for evidence of the
demi-god or demon and have ignored that which conflicts with their
preconceptions. They have likewise raced through his early life in
order to get to the war, in the process ignoring the complex
process of his development as a soldier. Analyses of Haig's command
have consequently been as shallow as the prevailing images of the
man. After eight years of painstaking and detailed research into
previously neglected sources, Gerard De Groot gave us a more
complete and balanced picture. This book, originally published in
1988, which will appeal both to the general and the specialised
reader, is not simply a critique of Haig's command in the war, but
an exploration into his personality. Close attention to his early
life and career reveals him as a creature of his society, a man who
mirrored both the virtues and the faults of Edwardian Britain. What
emerges is an intense, dedicated, but ultimately flawed servant of
his country whose ironic fate it was to grow up in one age and to
command in another.
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