THE WAR . IN OUTLINE By Liddell Hart A really short
history of the War has been badly needed, and in this opportune and admirable volume (Faber, 5s.) Captain Liddell Hart has met the need so completely that he need fear few competitors with temerity to emulate his performance. To be brief successfully not only condensation but proportion is essential, and Captain Liddell Hart has achieved both. There is no omission of any incident that demands mention in a volume on this scale, there is no partisanship (though it is always well to remember that the writer is an Easterner) and :it is hard to point anywhere to exaggeration or inadequacy of treatment. The story of Passchendaele is a case in point. That sorry story is told ruthlessly but fairly, though defenders of Haig could perhaps object that too little stress is laid on Jellicoe's insistence that the army should clear the coast for naval reasons. The Calais Conference of February, 1917, again, might have. been painted in rather different colours by, say, Mr. Duff 1Coope.; But considering the brevity of the volume- its - adeqbacy astonishing. A generation that _knows the War only from hearsaY; not from memory, could have no better introdoetioR- to:its history„ whether from the point of view of Strateg4,7 tactics or the -mechanism- of war, than The War in Outline. If it •provokes. the melandholy reflection that but for flagrant errors, due mainly to -obdurate conservatiirn, "victory irdirntz. haire'been.:achieVed in -half the time, and at far 'less- than lialtr the-cost, the--reflectiOn will be near the truth--except that the erroia:ivere on both sides, and neutralised each other.
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