1st Edition
British Infantry Battalion Commanders in the First World War
Introduction; Old contemptibles; Dug-outs; Attrition and change in command; Evolution of command in the integrated army; Hiring and firing; ‘Men to be followed, feared and loved’; ‘Professional men of war’; The hundred days: meritocracy in command?; Conclusion; Bibliography; Indexes.
Biography
Peter Hodgkinson is a Clinical Psychologist with a life-long interest in the First World War. He was one of the first graduates of the MA in British First World War Studies in 2006, and subsequently studied for a PhD in the Department of War Studies. He is the author a range of psychology articles and the book ’Coping with Catastrophe’ second edition (Routledge, 1998); and of ’Clearing the Dead’, in the online journal of the Birmingham University Centre for First World War Studies, Sept. 2007 Vol 3:1; and ’The Infantry Commanding Officers of the British Expeditionary Force of 1914’, in S. Jones ed. ’Stemming the Tide’, to be published by Helion (2013).
'This is an ambitious and rich study by Peter E. Hodgkinson, whose prosopographical analysis of the British army’s commanding officers (COs) addresses four central questions: Who were these men? How competent were they at their posts? What qualities made them good officers? And did the British army create a meritocracy by the end of the war? ...This is a remarkable piece of scholarship, a fine example of the Birmingham school of military history.' - Geoffrey Hayes, University of Waterloo, H-Net: Humanities and Social Science Reviews Online
