‘Well written and persuasive …objective and well-rounded….this scholarly rehabilitation should be the standard biography’, Andrew Roberts, Mail on Sunday

‘A true judgment of him must lie somewhere between hero and zero, and in this detailed biography Gary Sheffield shows himself well qualified to make it … a balanced portrait’ The Sunday Times

‘Solid scholarship and admirable advocacy’ Sunday Telegraph

Douglas Haig is the single most controversial general in British history. In 1918, after his armies had played a major role in the First World War, he was feted as a saviour. But within twenty years his reputation was in ruins, and it has never recovered.
Drawing on previously unknown private letters and new scholarship unavailable when The Chief was first published, eminent First World War historian Gary Sheffield reassesses Haig’s reputation, assessing his critical role in preparing the army for war.

One of Britain's leading military historians, GARY SHEFFIELD is Professor of War Studies at the University of Wolverhampton. He has written a number of critically acclaimed and commercially successful books on the First World War including Forgotten Victory: The First World War – Myths and Realities. He is the co-editor of Douglas Haig: War Diaries and Letters 1914-18.