Sir Basil Liddell Hart: Life, Thought, Legacy

The first unofficial biography of Sir Basil Liddell Hart (1895-1970). Nobody had more influence on Anglophone military thought over the last 100 years. He was born in the reign of Victoria, came of age in the year before the Great War, and wrote doctrine from the year after. In 1925 (when he was still 29 years of age), the rising Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS), desperate for good press, encouraged The Daily Telegraph to hire him as military correspondent. From that year, he published journalistic reports every few days, magazine articles every few months, and about one book per year, for a total of at least 35 books. He claimed to have been published in 42 countries and 31 languages.

He was yet more prolific as a letter-writer. His own archive contains almost 1,000 correspondents. He garnered inside information, which raised the value of his journalism and thence the books based on his journalism. By the 1930s, he directly advised ministers and flag officers.

Most of his policies, prescriptions, and predictions seemed discredited by the Second World War. However, during the 1950s, he popularized himself as prodigy, family man, intellectual, war hero, exposer of hard truths about the Great War, rigorous historian, author of British doctrine, strategist, fearless journalist, Army insider and outside critic, political sage, opponent of appeasement, secret guru to Britain's government during the Second World War, misunderstood proponent of negotiated peace, maligned proponent of a low-cost war, inventor of Blitzkrieg, America's adopted hero, Israel's inspiration, academic, writer, and mentor to a new generation of historians. In 1965, his memoirs cemented the narrative. In 1966, he was knighted by the Queen and photographed for the National Portrait Gallery.

Previous memorialists and biographers relied on what Liddell Hart said or wrote late in life - about what he had said or written early in life. Since then, new archives of correspondence have been opened. My biography is the first to cite those archives. It gives a fresh and objective insight into Liddell Hart's life, thought, and legacy.