by Harbinger.
Continuing my theme from last week with Harry Turtledove's excellent counter factual book 'Hitlers War', I am looking at the First World War. In particular I am reviewing this excellent book about one of its most famous British protagonists, Lord Herbert Kitchener. I had always been interested in Lord Kitchener, particularly in respect of his roles in some of the major wars involving the British Empire from 1871-1916.
John Pollock is an accomplished biographer and historian. The book he has written is thoroughly readable and not like some history books where readability is sacrificed for orgies of dates, or the indeed the reverse where the history is lost in the modern trend of 'dumbing down'. Many people will know Lord Kitchener as simply the face of one of the most famous posters in the world. He was in fact a highly complicated man who was seen often as a great war hero and at other times an anachronism.
Quite often the more negative view of Kitchener has been put forward by historians. Generally this is based on the tendency towards anti-imperialism in British History. Kitchener is obviously an important symbol of Imperialism along with figures like Major - General Charles Gordon and Robert Clive (Clive of India). However, in recent years Kitchener has undergone a rehabilitation. For example along with Winston Churchill, Kitchener was one of those blamed for the disastrous allied campaign in Gallipoli. This was mainly due to Churchill's entirely self serving attack on him when an inquiry was conducted into the failure. Conveniently for the Liberal Government, Kitchener had been killed in 1916. His ship was sunk by a German U-boat whilst on a diplomatic mission to Russia. His death meant he was unable to defend himself and was used as a scapegoat for mistakes military and otherwise made by the Government (A tactic especially used by David Lloyd - George in his war memoirs).
He however, was a vital factor in winning the war, his infamous recruitment campaigns secured just over 2 million men, the back bone of the army that eventually defeated Germany. It was neither the military pedigree of the French or the resources of the United States that concluded the 'Victory Battles' but the Brave volunteers of Kitchener's army.
Kitchener was a man who was stalked by controversy, from the hot deserts of the Sudan, to the disappointments of the Boer War and finally to the cloak and dagger world of Whitehall. Pollock has been able to extract the essence of a shy, quiet man who could be a little independent minded (not always a good trait in the world of politics.) His foresight and intelligence was such that he was was one of the few in the cabinet who predicted a long war and argued that the war would plumb the depths of Britain's manpower 'to the last million'. This book is obviously written by a man with passionate interest in Kitchener (much like myself). As such it is a great read and surprisingly well balanced.
Hope you enjoyed the review.
TTFN
2 comments:
It's always easy to attack the significant figures of the past without bothering to understand why they were significant. Lord Kitchener may have seemed stodgy by our standards but he was all soldier. He certainly served his country the best he could in spite of military superiors and politicians who, having no understanding of the situation in the field, persisted in directing a war whose nature they obviously did not understand. (General Sir Douglas Haig is a perfect example of this.)
All in all Lord Kitchener deserves much better of the descendants of the Englishmen whom he led in campaign after campaign. In my book he will always be a giant.
Exactly what I was getting at Jack. I am by no means saying he was perfect, he could be overly secrative at times and reluctant to explain his reasoning. But critacism of his record (especially in WW1) is based on the arguments of men who were using him for political capital.
Just like Hiag, no one understood that this was a new war, and no one knew the best way to fight it. The same is true of WW2 the early mistakes of the Allies show that the war was in a 'new' style that no one was quite prepared for.
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