Customer Reviews

When Men Lost Faith in Reason: Reflections on War and Society in the Twentieth Century (Studies in Military History and International Affairs)

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From the lofty pinnacle of military strategy, H.P. Willmott is one of the best. His two volumes on the first six months of Japan and America's war in the Pacific ("Empires in the Balance" and "Barrier and the Javelin" were brilliant and exhaustive.

"When Men Lost Faith" is uneven as he surveys war in the 20th century. Like so many authors, he tries and fails to make World War I interesting; he is better at World War II, especially in chopping a few inches off the stature of Rommell and examining why a cross channel invasion of France in 1943 (proposed by the Americans) was a very bad idea.

He gets better still when he give us a strategic overview of terrorism, Korea, Vietnam, and the first Gulf War (1991). He gives real insights here as to why the U.S. lost in Vietnam and why our victory over Iraq in 1991 was less than complete and satisfying. He even gets prophetic as he works his way into this century. The book was published in 2002 -- before Bush's Iraqi mis-adventure -- but Willmott is not hesitant in pooh-poohing the much heralded US "shock and awe" strategy, later employed in Iraq with much fanfare but to no good result.

Willmott is not an author for the beginner. He presumes a substantial knowledge by the reader of the topic of 20th century war.