War Starts At Midnight!

REVIEW: Robin Neillands, The Dieppe Raid: The Story of the Disastrous 1942 Expedition

H-NET BOOK REVIEW
Published by H-War@h-net.msu.edu (July 2008)

Robin Neillands. _The Dieppe Raid: The Story of the Disastrous 1942 Expedition_. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005. 292 pp. Notes, bibliography, index. $35.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0253-34781-7.

Reviewed for H-War by Jean Morin, Independent Scholar

A Flawed Plan from the Start

Robin Neillands is a prolific author who has made many names for himself in many genres and whose output defies boldly the confines of time.  As well as having written perhaps ninety books under various _noms de plume_, he has become one of the most popular military historians in the book market of the last decade.  His study _Bomber War_ (2001), was outstanding.  Sadly, Robin Neillands died last year at the age of 70, not quite finished with a biography of Montgomery.

His book on Dieppe was among his last.  It is one for which he was well qualified, having been a Royal Marines commando himself and having befriended such luminaries in the field of _coups de main_ as generals R. D. "Titch" Houghton and Peter Young (DSO [Distinguished Service Order] in
Dieppe), who shared memories with him of their own involvement in cross-Channel raids during the Second World War, including that of Dieppe. Neillands has obviously had personal experience in learning to plan such operations or walk the talk of the commando, and his book is professional
and sensible.  The British commandos did well on the periphery of Operation Jubilee and one gets the impression that this Dieppe study wants to make them shine ...

REVIEW: Andrew August, The British Working Class, 1832-1940

H-NET BOOK REVIEW
Published by H-Albion@h-net.msu.edu (April 2008)

Andrew August. _The British Working Class, 1832-1940_. Harlow: Pearson Longman, 2007. ix + 286 pp. Notes, bibliography, index. $33.40 (paper), ISBN 0-582-38130-4.

Reviewed for H-Albion by Dennis Dworkin, Department of History, University of Nevada

In the 1960s and 1970s, the working class--and particularly the British working class--had a special place in historical writing.  It was at the center of the new social history and history from below, in large part because of E. P. Thompson's enormously influential _The Making of the English Working Class_ (1963).  Yet, Thompson's book built on a tradition of radical historiography in which the British working class was important to the historical process broadly conceived.  It was the world's first industrial proletariat and central to Karl Marx's understanding of the historical dynamic of capitalism and the transition to socialism.  The British working class's experience had universal implications.

Certainly, much has changed since the heyday of the new social and labor history.  The end of communism, the rise of identity politics, the decline of the labor movement, the advent of post-Fordism, and a host of other changes have contributed to a declining interest in the working class within historiography.  As a result of the impact of the linguistic turn, the new cultural history, postmodernism, and postcolonial studies, the fields of labor and social history are less central than they once were.  Yet, at the same time, there has been an outpouring of theoretical discussion that has revised our understanding of class, and historians have produced a more complex and nuanced picture of British working-class life.  The theoretical transformations have been analyzed at length, including by me in _Class Struggles_ (2007).  Andrew August's _The British Working Class: 1832-1940_ is a highly readable overview of British working-class history that builds on the achievement of numerous social, cultural, and feminist historians, while deploying numerous primary sources to make its principal points ...

REVIEW: Owen Dudley Edwards, British Children's Fiction in the Second World War

H-NET BOOK REVIEW
Published by H-Albion@h-net.msu.edu (March 2008)

Owen Dudley Edwards. _British Children's Fiction in the Second World War_. Societies at War Series. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007. vi + 744 pp. Illustrations, figures, index. $200.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-7486-1651-0.

Reviewed for H-Albion by Stephen Heathorn, Department of History, McMaster University

Too Many Fairies and Not Enough Tale

If one word could possibly sum up a 744-page book, then in this case I would have to say it would have to be "indulgence." I must admit up front that it took me a long time to read Owen Dudley Edwards's _British Children's Fiction in the Second World War_, and despite the interesting topic, I am not sure it was worth the effort. It is not that Edwards writes poorly or has little of interest to say. On the contrary, every page is filled with learned allusions, wit, and genuine insight, and his primary research has been prodigious. The problem is that this research and the insights gleaned
from it are not presented in an intellectually disciplined manner. Edwards has crammed into his book every last fact, every last supposition, and every last connection he has discovered in the course of reading his sources. This indulgence--and that of his editors and of the press--makes for a massive and unwieldy tome that, unfortunately, is sometimes rather tedious to wade through. The indulgence in description, extensive quotation and allusion--and, frankly nostalgia--where explicit argument and synthesizing analysis were called for, diminishes the impact of what might otherwise have been an excellent book.

Although the works of over a hundred authors are mentioned or discussed in passing, the key protagonists of Edwards's tale are really Enid Blyton, W. E. Johns, Richmal Crompton, E. M. Brent-Dyer, and Frank Richards. The others--including such literary heavyweights as J. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis and George Orwell--are more or less the supporting cast, discussed to illuminate specific issues rather than the main theme of the book. That theme can be summarized as follows: the war was a time of relaxed or absent parental control, and British children inhabited a world, therefore, in which they were particularly susceptible to the messages of the popular literature and commercialized juvenile culture on which they, by necessity of parental relaxation/absence, relied to make sense of their world. So, Edwards's argument--implicit in a number of statements spread through the book rather than explicitly detailed--is that children's fiction, especially that of Blyton, Johns, and Crompton, provided "resources" for children to "manage" their experience of war. I find this instrumental view of children's literature a more contentious proposition than does Edwards, and because he does not explicitly explore or defend his argument empirically or theoretically, I do not find that his view ultimately carries much conviction ...

REVIEW: Anthony Clayton, The British Officer: Leading the Army from 1660 to the Present

H-NET BOOK REVIEW
Published by H-Albion@h-net.msu.edu (February 2008)

Anthony Clayton. _The British Officer: Leading the Army from 1660 to the Present_. Harlow: Pearson Longman, 2007. xiv + 335 pp. Illustrations, notes, appendices, index. £9.99 (paper), ISBN 978-1-4058-5901-1.

Reviewed for H-Albion by Keith Surridge, Independent Scholar

The British Army is now constantly in the news owing to its involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. This has generated much interest in the troops themselves and recently the army has been the subject of several television documentaries. One that will air soon features a former soap opera actor embedded with a particular unit. The involvement of Princes William and Harry in the army, both of whom have successfully trained as junior officers, keeps its media profile high. Moreover, retired senior officers have been publishing their memoirs; the most recent, and perhaps outspoken, is that by General Sir Mike Jackson, _Soldier: the Autobiography_ (2007). His trenchant views on operations in Kosovo, and especially the 2003 invasion of Iraq, caused much comment in the press. Thus, a book that seeks to explore the British army officer from earliest times to the modern era is timely.

With recent events in mind, Anthony Clayton, a former lecturer at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, in line with a lot of press opinion, points out that most politicians have no experience of army life. And, consequently, they have no understanding of the stresses and strains placed upon officers who have to meld individuals into fighting units and command them in combat situations. His book, therefore, seeks to give some idea of how officers have coped over the centuries with leading men in peace and war. Examining the role of the officer from the modern army's foundation in 1660 to the twenty-first century, Clayton discusses the social background of officers; their training and motivation; and how they have interacted with their men. Influencing all these is the peculiar nature of the British regiment, a "mutual obligation society" (p. 7), with its ancient traditions, that has no counterpart elsewhere ...

REVIEW: Martin Moore, The Origins of Modern Spin: Democratic Government and the Media in Britain 1945-51

H-NET BOOK REVIEW
Published by H-Albion@h-net.msu.edu (March 2008)

Martin Moore. _The Origins of Modern Spin: Democratic Government and the Media in Britain 1945-51_. Houndmills: Palgrave, 2006. ix + 284 pp. Notes, bibliography, index.  $69.95 (cloth), ISBN 14039-8956-7.

Reviewed for H-Albion by John Jenks, Communications Department, Dominican University

Spinning out of the Past

"Spin" first appeared in the _Oxford English Dictionary_ in 1993, but Martin Moore argues that the origins of modern spin actually lay nearly a half century earlier with the 1945-51 Labour government and its attempt to steer public information and perceptions about their ambitious programs. Through detailed archival reconstruction of Labour government policies and practices, and their relation with the media, Moore adds to our understanding of the development of propaganda and information management during the crucial postwar years. This book will be valuable to historians of postwar Britain as well as communication and political science specialists.

Moore argues that Labour leaders began with a mechanistic faith in broadly disseminated, impartial information: if they just gave enough facts about its programs and activities they would enlighten the public, who after all had just put them firmly into power. Setbacks and failures led them to take
a less ambitious, more finely calibrated approach--largely using the press and broadcasting. This set the template for modern government communication, he argues ...

REVIEWS: Raymond Callahan, Churchill and His Generals & Nigel Hamilton, Montgomery: D-Day Commander

H-NET BOOK REVIEW
Published by H-Albion@h-net.msu.edu (November 2007)

Raymond Callahan. _Churchill and His Generals_. Modern War Studies Series. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2007. x + 310 pp. Photographs, notes, bibliography, index. $34.95 (cloth), ISBN
0-7006-1512-1.

Nigel Hamilton. _Montgomery: D-Day Commander_. Military Profiles Series. Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books, 2007. xiv + 142 pp. Photographs, maps, chronology, notes, bibliography, index. $21.95 (cloth), ISBN 1-5748-8903-6; $13.95 (paper), ISBN 1-5748-8904-4.

Reviewed for H-Albion by Antoine Capet, Department of British Studies, University of Rouen

Battles of Egos

Just as devotees of "Monty" will be familiar with Nigel Hamilton's copious output on the great soldier (he was Bernard Montgomery's official biographer, with three comprehensive volumes published between 1981 and 1986), specialists of Churchill studies will remember Raymond Callahan's older book on Winston Churchill, _Churchill: Retreat from Empire_ (1984). This year, Dennis E. Showalter's handy series, Military Profiles, offers a short biography of Montgomery as military commander, while the University Press of Kansas publishes a monograph on what is arguably (and incredibly) a new topic. In contrast to John Keegan's well-known edited collection, _Churchill's Generals_ (1991), which concentrates on individual generals, Callahan's new book, _Churchill and His Generals_, examines relations between Churchill and the men who worked under him. _Churchill and His Generals_ must not have been an easy book to write, is not an easy book to read, and therefore not an easy book to review.

The subject is an extremely complex one (which may explain why nobody had tackled it before), since it draws on highly technical military considerations. The military in modern times involves intricate economic, industrial, technological, diplomatic, geopolitical, electoral, cultural, and psychological elements. These elements are often mutually incompatible, frequently resulting in an intractable situation for war leaders, let alone historians and commentators who try to recapture the mental process of the times in top government circles or in battlefield headquarters and assess the merits of warlords and the decisions that they made. Callahan strives to concentrate on his stated subject--the relations between Churchill and his generals--but to examine these relationships in depth, he also provides the ins and outs of the generals' strategies and tactics as well as the way they tried (or not) to justify them before a highly critical Churchill ("the first prime minister since Wellington in 1829 to have been a regular soldier") (p. 235), whose perception of them, as stated to his entourage and in his memoirs, is also given in detail ...

REVIEW: Ian Kershaw, Fateful Choices: Ten Decisions that Changed the World, 1940-1941

H-Diplo Review Essay

Ian Kershaw. Fateful Choices: Ten Decisions that Changed the World, 1940-1941. London and New York: Penguin, 2007. pp. xxiv, 624. ISBN 978-0-713-99712-5.

Review by Gerhard L. Weinberg, University of North Carolina, Emeritus

Published by H-Diplo on 4 November 2007

The author of a recent excellent two-volume biography of Adolf Hitler has selected ten decisions made in the early stages of World War II for careful examination. One might argue about the choices selected, but even if one could argue for a different selection, a reviewer ought to  deal with the book the author wrote, not one he might have written. In each of the cases Kershaw carefully examines and recounts the background  to the decision, explains the options ­ if any ­ as seen by the decider, points to the presence or absence of dissenting voices at the time, and delineates how and why the decision actually taken came to be.

The first decision examined is that of the British government in May-June 1940 to continue to fight against Germany after the fall of France. While this reviewer¹s reading of the evidence does not make the division between the views of Winston Churchill and Lord Halifax as clear cut as Kershaw does, no one is likely to disagree with the judgement that this decision was of enormous significance for the subsequent course of the war. Perhaps the account would have been more accurate if Kershaw had noted that in 1938 Churchill had privately informed the government of Czechoslovakia that if he were in power, he would follow the same policy as Neville Chamberlain, a policy he publicly attacked in his subsequent writings. And if Kershaw had noted that the fighter planes that won the Battle of Britain were not purchased at the 5 & 10 the day after Churchill became prime minister but had been ordered by Chamberlain over the opposition of the Labour Party, his account of the latter siding with Churchill in the decision  to continue fighting would be easier to understand ...

REVIEW: Stefan Goebel, The Great War and Medieval Memory: War, Remembrance and Medievalism in Britain and Germany, 1914-1940

H-NET BOOK REVIEW
Published by H-Albion@h-net.msu.edu (July 2007)

Stefan Goebel. _The Great War and Medieval Memory: War, Remembrance and Medievalism in Britain and Germany, 1914-1940_. Studies in the Social and Cultural History of Modern Warfare Series. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007. xviii + 357 pp. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $ 90.00 (cloth), ISBN 0-521-85415-6.

Reviewed for H-Albion by Antoine Capet, University of Rouen, France

Some Are More Medievalist than Others

It is clear from his stated objectives as indicated in the introduction that the author set himself a very ambitious task, from at least two points of view. First, because the general theme of the book is not one with which most readers are _prima facie_ familiar: "The 'medievalising' of the memory of the Great War is the subject-matter of this study. It argues that the Middle Ages figured centrally in the remembrance of the First World War in both Britain and Germany between 1914 and 1940" (p. 1). Second, because, as Stefan Goebel himself admits, the book "ventures into a significantly underdeveloped field of historical enquiry: empirical comparative history" (p. 6). Mastering the subject and the enormous historiography of First World War memory in Britain or Germany was already a considerable difficulty, which he chose to compound by covering both countries, fully aware of the pitfalls, since he writes that "the comparative historian of the First World War seems to tread a tightrope between emphasizing European convergences, national
peculiarities, or sectional diversities within nations" (p. 10).

Goebel's approach is clearly influenced by Pierre Nora's _Lieux de memoire_ (1984-1992). Those who are familiar with the work or its translations will remember that the "sites of memory" in question go much further than mere places and buildings, to include all elements of culture. Here, of course, lies the first major difficulty as the signifiers "culture" in English and "Kultur" in German do not have the same signified notions, with "Kultur" including references to Germanity which "culture" does not have in English for Britishness. Since, not unexpectedly, he founds his reasoning on the chivalrous ideals of the Middle Ages, Goebel draws a constant implicit comparison between the exploitation of the Knights of the Round Table in Britain and the Teutonic Knights in Germany. But as the very expression "the Arthurian legend" immediately suggests, the Knights of the Round Table are not "history"--at best they are "cultural history"--admittedly a British _lieu de memoire_ in Pierre Nora's wide acceptation of the notion, but evidently not with the same grounding in the national historical awareness as the "real" Teutonic Knights ...

Britain and the Second World War: General

(Under construction)

• Angus Calder, The People's War. Cape, 1969.
• John D. Cantwell, The Second World War:  A Guide to Documents in the Public Record Office. PRO Handbook No. 15 (Revised Third Edition), 1998. 187316260X. Very detailed description of the PRO's holdings, but equally useful for its explanations of the organization of wartime government.
• Central Statistical Office, Fighting With Figures: A Statistical Digest of the Second World War. HMSO, 1995. 0116207191. Reprint (with reorganized tables) of the 1951 Statistical Digest. Contains vast amounts of quantitative data on wartime social and (especially) economic change in Britain.
• Winston Churchill, The Second World War.
         Volume I: The Gathering Storm. Houghton Mifflin, 1948. 039541055X.
         Volume II: Their Finest Hour. Houghton Mifflin, 1949. 0395410568.
         Volume III: The Grand Alliance. Houghton Mifflin, 1950. 0395410576.
         Volume IV: The Hinge of Fate. Houghton Mifflin, 1950. 0395410584.
         Volume V: Closing the Ring. Houghton Mifflin, 1951. 0395410592.
         Volume VI: Triumph and Tragedy. Houghton Mifflin, 1953. 0395410606.
  "I agree that we had better leave the past to history, but remember if I live long enough I may be one of the historians."
  Also available as a single-volume abridged Memoirs of the Second World War. Mariner, 1991. 0395599687.
• Mark Donnelly, Britain in the Second World War. Routledge, 2005. 0415174260.
• Juliet Gardiner, Wartime: Britain 1939-1945. Headline, 2004.
• Robert MacKay, Test of War: Inside Britain 1939-1945. Routledge, 1999. 1857286359.
• Arthur Marwick, The Home Front: the British and the Second World War. Thames & Hudson, 1976.
• Henry Pelling, Britain and the Second World War. Franklin Watts, 1970. 0531060012.
• A.J.P. Taylor, English History 1914-1945. Oxford, 1965.

REVIEW: A. N. Wilson, After the Victorians: The Decline of Britain in the World

H-NET BOOK REVIEW
Published by: H-Albion (November, 2006)

A. N. Wilson. After the Victorians: The Decline of Britain in the World. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005. xii + 609 pp. Illustrations, notes, bibliography index. $32.50 (cloth), ISBN 0-374-10198-5.

Reviewed by: Rohan McWilliam, Department of History, Anglia Ruskin University.

A. N. Wilson and Edward, George, Edward, George

A. N. Wilson is a force of nature. Novels, histories, journalism, and biographies leap from his Chestertonian pen along with the odd bon mot and a delight in troublemaking. A self-appointed chronicler of English manners and foibles, he writes from the not unfertile position of the conservative maverick. By this I mean that he displays an affection for national institutions and traditions, but he is not deceived about their shortcomings and limitations. He celebrates the pragmatists rather than the ideologues and is ever willing to expose the distance between soaring rhetoric and sordid deeds.

A sequel to Wilson's Victorians (2002) (whose subject I suspect was more to his taste), After the Victorians is very much a popular history written for a non-academic audience and should be assessed as such. Like the earlier volume, this is intended as a "portrait of an age." It covers the years from Victoria's death in 1901 to the accession of Elizabeth II. Wilson's waggish agent apparently suggested that the book should be titled "Edward, George, Edward, George" after the monarchs in between. The English paperback edition has been given the subtitle, The World Our Parents Knew, which perhaps explains Wilson's attraction to the subject but which does not give much away about the contents of the book. The subtitle of the American edition is The Decline of Britain in the World which is not much more helpful as the issue of "decline" is ever present but never discussed in a coherent way, although the book ends predictably with Dean Acheson's observation that, after the Second World War, the British lost an empire and failed to find a role (p. 528) ...