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Title: Mud, Blood and Poppycock: Britain and the First World War (Cassell Military Trade Books) by Gordon Corrigan ISBN: 0-304-35955-6 Publisher: Cassell Pub. Date: 01 October, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (3 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: If I could give 6 stars...
Comment: I would give them to Gordon Corrigan. Having read voraciously on WWI, I picked up this book expecting some more of the same, rather dry approach that I've found in many accounts of The Great War. (Rick Atkinson, please write about WWI after you finish your trilogy). But "Mud, Blood.." was a pleasant surprise. Corrigan has a wonderful wit and a keen insight into the myths of the most important event of the 20th century. While once again we get the English view, it's a different one, often tongue in cheek, often heart-rending, but always with fine choice of detail, clear writing, and an ability to look at events and actions from a different persecptive. The men who fought and directed the war to end all wars deserve a book of this quality to tell their story. Mr. Corrigan, please. Give us more.
Rating: 5
Summary: An outstanding book on the myths, life and death in WWI
Comment: Mr. Corrigan (a retired British Army officer) has put together an excellent book accounting for many myths and misunderstandings about how the war was waged, the commanders and their backgrounds, the average troops in the muddy trenches and their daily lives in France. I would suggest this book to anyone interested in WWI and the experiences of the men in the trenches.
Rating: 5
Summary: Thorough and readible: A treasure!
Comment: Gordon Corrigan has produced a real wonder here: A history book that is thorough, readible, and even humorous! Corrigan's intent is to debunk myths and explain the realities of the First World War in terms that make sense to an audience that has little frame of reference to the realities of the early Twentieth Century. Drawing only the British experience, both from a desire to keep the material to an accessable scope, and from familiarity (Corrigan is former Royal Army), he has accomplished exactly that, and more. This is not a typical chronology of war, nor a list of battle honors, nor is it a narative in the usual sense. Corrigan sticks resolutely to his purpose, and only gives specific battle details when they serve the purpose of elucidating the conditions that existed, despite the undoubtably intense temptation to wander further afield.
By approaching his material myth-by-myth, Corrigan has simplified his task, and made his lessons more accessable to the reader, even if it means that he somtimes retraces his own footsteps. This choice lends Mud, Blood, and Poppycock to use as a textbook as well as a volume of general history. You needn't read the entire book to gain value from it, you only need open to any specific chapter, and Corrigan's entire argument for debunking that particular myth is layed out for you in it's entirety, with no need to refer elsewhere. If, however, you *do* wish to refer elsewhere, there is a rather complete list of end notes to each chapter. This is one of the few items about which I might have any quibble: While the end notes are more useful if you're going to follow-up with additional research, a casual reader would find footnotes easier to read, without needing to flip back and forth to the end of the chapter.
Corrigan isn't infallible, and he does make the occasional error, such as asserting that no army can plan for the 'next' war, but instead *must* plan for future wars by learning from past wars, and that no army has the resources to plan speculatively for the future. This is clearly in error: While any responsible army must indeed study the lessons of past wars, a truly responsible army also studies future trends. Now I realize that that particular doctrine is relatively new, asserting that it doesn't exist at all is a mistake. He does give himself an 'out' by noting that armies of the day had little budgetary resource for studying war from a speculative approach. Still, Corrigan would've done better to explain that doctrine changes, rather than deny its existance. This is one of the very few failed analysis I can find in the entire book, and is actually a pretty minor one (as are the few other such). On the other hand, Corrigan's dry wit permiates the book, making me smile at the oddest moments. One comment that simply cracked me up was a reference to the shape of mortar pits resulting in an increase in constipation. I won't give away the entire joke (nor any of the others scatered throughout), so you'll just have to buy or borrow the book and find it yourself. In fact, I STRONGLY recommend that you do so... Not only is the wit entertaining, but the book is also a wonderful work of historical scholarship. Corrigan's conclusions are solidly based in carefully documented research, and appear to be without ulterior motivation, further reenforcing the value of this work.
READ it!
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Title: Your Country Needs You: Expansion of the British Army Infantry Divisions 1914-1918 by Martin Middlebrook ISBN: 0850527112 Publisher: Pen & Sword Books Pub. Date: 01 February, 2000 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: The Franco-Prussian War: The German Conquest of France in 1870-1871 by Geoffrey Wawro ISBN: 0521584361 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 01 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea by ROBERT K. MASSIE ISBN: 0679456716 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 28 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: Europe's Last Summer : Who Started the Great War in 1914? by DAVID FROMKIN ISBN: 0375411569 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 23 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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Title: Ripples of Battle: How Wars of the Past Still Determine How We Fight, How We Live, and How We Think by Victor Davis Hanson ISBN: 0385504004 Publisher: Doubleday Books Pub. Date: 16 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
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