Liddell Hart and the Weight of History
About This Novel
How is history written? How was it distorted? During World War II, the British government made serious mistakes due to Hart's influence. After the war, Hart used his alleged achievements to reverse the damage to his reputation. How did he do it? In this unflinching and fair-minded book, John Mearsheimer re-examines Liddell Hart's career and reveals the false picture Liddell Hart had about his role in the military policy debates of 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 more farsighted German generals. He claimed that the Wehrmacht's application of his Blitzkrieg theory led to France's defeat in 1940, a disaster he had foreseen. In order to correct history, Mearsheimer completely destroyed Liddell Hart's "prophet myth" between the two wars. Mearsheimer found that, in fact, Liddell Hart "was simply wrong on some basic military issues in the 1930s" and that "his writings misled the British government into making serious mistakes." The widespread perception of Liddell Hart's misjudgment severely damaged his reputation during the war, and Mearsheimer also shows how Liddell Hart successfully repaired his own image. Although some of Liddell Hart's military theories remain relevant, Mearsheimer warned that they should be used with caution.
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