The Bookshelf

FROM a war-fearful and hastily rearming England comes a vividly engrossing account of the last world conflict. Recording the struggle from purely a military standpoint, Captain Hart devotes himself mainly to a demonstration of the follies and mistakes of Allied and German generals with the attendant needless loss of life.

Perhaps the outstanding characteristic of the book is a series of biographical sketches, which includes Lord Haig, Marshal Foch, Joffre, Ludendorff, and Lawrence of Arabia, as well as numerous lesser known military figures. These portraits are much more than more recitals of the chief events in the men's lives. They rather attempt to evaluate the influence of their previous experiences on the events in which these soldiers took a leading part. Captain Hart attempts to pierce the enveloping mist of popular applause and adulation to present the war leaders as they really were. With an almost too brutal frankness are exposed the stupidity of Joffre in failing to provide adequate defenses at Verdun, and the incredible obstinacy of General Pershing in insisting that the United States Army fight as a separate unit when reinforcements were vitally needed by both the French and British troops.

From a strictly literary point of view the book is consistently fine. Although much of the material is of a rather technical nature, the reader's interest never lags. Particularly effective is the chapter dealing with the heroic campaign of the English in Belgium. Nowhere does the futility of war seem more apparent than in this account of the British loss of 100,000 lives for the sake of retaining a few square miles of disease-infested swampland.

Yet herein lies the book's chief weakness. The horrors and brutalities of war are not brought home forcibly enough. In his attempt to show all the intricate workings out of tactical campaigns the author seems to lose his grasp of the whole. He seems to view the conflict as a struggle between armies rather than peoples. Captain Hart does not appreciate the sufferings and hardships of the civilian population which may truly be considered war's greatest tragedy.