Customer Reviews

Cassell Military Classics: The Swordbearers: Supreme Command In The First World War

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"Swordbearers" is an excellent look at four of the key military personalities in WWI as well as the political and cultural background in France, the UK and Germany. I was especially impressed by the section dealing with Jellicoe, Jutland, and Barnett's provocative hypotheses regarding the decline of the British Navy. His argument that the Navy had fallen behind technologically, in tandem with British industry in general, is extremely astute and thought-provoking. (It also meshes with Barnett's other later writing about the decline of Britain as a world power.) While the book does date from 1963, as another reviewer has noted, I would place it on the same high level as "The Guns of August," another work of similar vintage which still remains a potent read forty years later.

Along with The Guns of August, this book influenced my perception of World War I more than any other. It should be stated that this is a study of supreme command during that war, and not a view from the trenches. If you want to understand how such a calamity could have occurred, however, and the thinking of those who steered it, this is the place to start. Barnett unleashes a devastating military and psychological study of these 4 leaders, and lays bare their misguided intentions and inability to grasp the true situation. No other book I know of lays it out this well. One of the best books on the subject in extant.

This book is simply a reissue of the 1963 edition, and it's really a pity that the publisher has decided to re-print such a flawed and bias account of the main antagonists in WWI.

There is no clear line of argument and attempt to characterise each general. To me it seemed that the author was jumping around all over the place. Particular annoying are the references to WWII, which don't really underline any of the arguments brought forward.

The sketchy characterisation of the "swordbearers" does not warrant the title of the book, since for lengthy passages the book dwells on the larger events and then halfheartedly tries to return to its intended objective.