Gary Sheffield for Review Revisionists, I ask you. Can't live with them and can't live without them! But Dr. Sheffield is a more cunning kind of revisionist than the more strident variety. He states his views, backs them up and then admits that neither side have it exactly right. Was Haig a duffer? Not really, but he did push far too long far too often. Did the British win at the Somme? Probably but in the sense that the Germans lost. Were the Americans any good in WW1? Not with Pershing in charge but their effect on German morale was undoubted. And if the war had gone into 1919 then Hunter Liggett would have produced a very different AEF. Were the Canadians and Aussies invulnerable? Not without the proper artillery prep (Sheffield's view is that it was an all-arms school of war that broke the Germans). Were they therefore just ordinary? No, he speaks of one Aussie attack as being impressive even by their standards. This careful and considered approach is persuasive (compare it to Mosier's silly boosterism) and possibly indicates we might eventually treat this war like others. (A point he is not slow to make). Old Duffer's Book Corner Book Reviews The First Armies Verdun 1916 Russia's Civil War Luetzen 1632 Philip V of Spain The End of Chivalry Le Roi De Guerre Warships of the Napoleonic Era Cannae The Death of Anglo-Saxon England Ancient Siege Warfare War and Society in Revolutionary Europe 1770-1870 Forgotten Victory The Remaking of the English Navy Cassino: The Hollow Victory Raising Churchill's Army The Imperial War Museum Book of the War in Italy The Irish And British Wars 1637-1654 Cavaliers: The Royalist Army At War 1642-1646 Alamein Normandy 1944 Hill 112 Breaking The Panzers Béveziers (1690) Paths of Glory: The French Army 1914-18 Caesar’s Legion Operation Bluecoat Operation Epsom Marching to the Sound of Gunfire The Franco-Prussian War Robert the Bruce’s Irish Wars When Titans Clashed The Wars of Edward III Monte Cassino Under Fire The Somme Roads to Falaise Mud, Blood And Poppycock All The Kaiser’s Men Iron Hulls Iron Hearts A Noble Crusade The Pendulum of Battle: Operation Goodwood The English Resistance The Battle of Koniggrätz Pallas Armata Back to Perfidious Albion #104 Table of Contents Back to Perfidious Albion List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by Charles and Teresa Vasey. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com