History of the Second World War.

LIDDELL HART, Basil Henry.

Item Number: 129581

London: Cassell & Company Ltd, 1970.

First edition of the best-selling account of World War II by one of the foremost military analysts of the 20th century. Octavo, bound in full crushed red morocco by Sangorski and Sutcliffe with gilt titles and tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, triple gilt ruling and fleuron cornerpieces to the front and rear panels, gilt turn-ins and inner dentelles, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Illustrated with 53 maps drawn by Richard Natkiel. An exceptional example of this popular account, considered to be the most important work of military historiography about the war at the time of publication.

Sir Basil Liddell Hart (1895-1970) was one of the foremost military analysts of the twentieth century. His ideas revolutionized the art of war. A student at Cambridge University at the outbreak of World War I, he joined the army and rose to the rank of captain. He later lectured at Cambridge and served as personal adviser to War Minister Leslie Hore-Belisha in the reorganization of the British Army in the run-up to World War II. He was the author of more than thirty books and had an enormous influence on military thinking about mechanized warfare. Basil Liddell Hart's private library and famous and voluminous archives of personal correspondence with such giants as Lloyd George and Churchill; the notes of the detailed interviews which he conducted after the war with the captured German generals, as well as with the leading Allied commanders who had so often turned to him for inspiration and advice; the subject files and private papers placed in his hands by many of his great contemporaries-all constitute that priceless personal collection of private documents upon which the present magnificent work is based. It is military history in the broadest possible scale, ranging from the frustrating events preceding the war, through all the campaigns and battles of seven turbulent years, to the final conclusion of hostilities.