Basis and Making of British Grand Strategy 1940-1943 Was There a Plan? Vol. 2
| Author: | Farrell, Brian | |
| Year: | 1988 | |
| Pages: | 396 | |
| ISBN: | 0-7734-8359-4 978-0-7734-8359-0 | |
| Price: | $239.95 + shipping | |
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This massive, two-volume study treats the central direction of global war as a problem in its own right, posing these questions: why did the British fight the war as they did from spring 1940? What impact did their direction have both on the war and the British global position? This study differs from the Official History series Grand Strategy by arguing that from summer 1940 British grand strategy was significantly revised, and conducted from that point along broad but distinct outlines laid down by consensus in a guiding concept. It makes new points regarding the relationship between Churchill and his Chiefs of Staff, the nature of the 'integrated' British-American war effort and economic mobilization, the role of Bomber Command in grand strategy, and British perceptions of a 'Second Front' in Europe.
Reviews
"Based on a careful, extensive and perceptive reading of the interpretative secondary literature, including diaries and memoirs, and the primary contemporary materials now open to scholarly scrutiny in Britain and the United States, Farrell argues that Churchill's wartime coalition government devised a flexible, broad consensus on grand strategy that remained its guiding principle throughout the war. . . . Farrell provides his readers with informed and shrewd analysis of the political context that shaped these decisions, and a forthright assessment of their wisdom. The result is an informed, well-written, forcefully argued book that provides new insight into the reasons Britain fought, and the consequences of their decisions." - Carman Miller