Liddell Hart and the Weight of History

by John J. Mearsheimer

For almost half a century, Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart (1895–1970) was the most highly regarded writer on strategy and military matters in the English-speaking world and even today, his ideas are still discussed and debated. Although he helped to formulate Great Britain's military doctrine after the First World War, it was his critique of British strategic policy before and during the early years of the Second World War that earned him a seemingly unassailable reputation as a brilliant strategist. In this unflinching but balanced book, John J. Mearsheimer reexamines Liddell Hart's career and uncovers evidence that he manipulated the facts to create a false picture of his role in military policy debates in the 1930s. According to Liddell Hart's widely accepted account, his progressive ideas about armored warfare were rejected by the British army and adopted instead by the more far-sighted German generals. The Wehrmacht's application of his theory of blitzkrieg, he claimed, resulted in the defeat of France in 1940, a disaster he foresaw. Setting the historical record straight, Mearsheimer shatters once and for all the myth of Liddell Hart's prescience in the interwar period. Liddell Hart had, in fact, "been quite wrong on the basic military questions of the 1930s," Mearsheimer finds, "and his writings helped lead the British government into serious error. Wide recognition of Liddell Hart's misjudgments badly damaged his reputation during the war, and Mearsheimer shows how he mounted a successful campaign to restore his image. Although some of Liddell Hart's military theories are still relevant, Mearsheimer warns that they should be applied with caution. This troubling book offers a striking illustration of how history can be used and abused―how a gifted individual can create their own self-serving version of the past. Based on scrupulously documented evidence, Liddell Hart and the Weight of History is certain to be of great interest to those concerned with military policy and history.

Genres: History, International Relations, Political Science, Biography, Military Fiction

248 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

John Joseph Mearsheimer (1947) is an American political scientist and international relations scholar, who belongs to the realist school of thought. He is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago. He has been described as the most influential realist of his generation.
Mearsheimer is best known for developing the theory of offensive realism, which describes the interaction between great powers as being primarily driven by the rational desire to achieve regional hegemony in an anarchic international system. In accordance with his theory, Mearsheimer believes that China's growing power will likely bring it into conflict with the United States.
Mearsheimer's works are widely read and debated by 21st-century students of international relations. A 2017 survey of US international relations faculty ranks him third among "scholars whose work has had the greatest influence on the field of IR in the past 20 years.

Reviews

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Admittedly standing on the shoulders of Brian Bond, John Mearsheimer has written a superb account of the falsifications of Basil Liddell Hart and how he manipulated his own record as an "expert" military commentator to cover up that he was one of those responsible for the debacle in France in 1940. While LH still has his fans and his books are still in print, it is now clear that he was a shameless self-promoter and that, because of his enormous body of written material, he could pick and choose those works which would vindicate his record while ignoring the ones that damned him. All through the 1930s, for instance, he insisted that there was no hope of success for offensive tactics and that Britain did not need - in fact he was opposed to - a large and powerful army. During this period, he was an adviser to the minister of war and the military correspondent for the Times. He would later write that he was the father of the blitzkrieg and a lonely outsider calling for change! All this and more is grist for Mearsheimer's thorough mill. Engagingly written, this book is a must for military historians and those who honor intellectual honesty.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting critique of an author whose works I like and even admire to an extent. The crooks of the matter, stems from what the subjected after World War II with sort of shameless self promotion and gross exaggeration of his influence, and the applicability of his ideas seemingly suitable to all circumstances
If you have read Liddell hart, this offers an different perspective on him.