1918: A Very British Victory.

1918: A Very British Victory. Peter Hart. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. [pounds sterling]20.00. vii + 552 pages. ISBN 978-0-297-84652-9. This is Mr Hart's fourth book on the Great War and in it he attempts to set the record straight regarding the British victory in 1918. He rejects the view that German defeat was due to the blockade, to internal crises or to the arrival of US forces. German defeat, when it came, was a military defeat at the hands of a British army (especially the artillery) which had learnt from past efforts and which began the final attack on 8 August with skill, bravery and the right equipment. The 'proud record of the British Army' in 1918 was recognised and praised in the 1920s and then revision set in. He reminds us that at the time soldiers and civilians believed in the war and on the whole accepted the sacrifices involved. The author has made good use of material at the Imperial War Museum and elsewhere and has written a good corrective. Sometimes his judgements on the wider picture are a bit weak: it is, for example, misleading to describe the Russian monarchy in 1914 as 'despotic' and grossly inaccurate to use the same adjective to describe the Austrian Empire in 1914-18. (T.B.)