The Donkeys

New York: William Morrow and Company, 1962. Presumed First U.S. Edition, first printing. Hardcover. 216 pages. Illustrations. Maps. Appendices. Bibliography. Index. Ex-library with usual library markings, bookplate and sticker. Boards and spine scuffed and somewhat faded. Alan Kenneth Mackenzie Clark (13 April 1928 – 5 September 1999) was a British Conservative Member of Parliament (MP), author and diarist. He served as a junior minister in Margaret Thatcher's governments at the Departments of Employment, Trade and Defence. He became a member of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom in 1991. He was the author of several books of military history, including his controversial work The Donkeys (1961), which inspired the musical satire Oh, What a Lovely War! Clark became known for his flamboyance, wit, and irreverence. Norman Lamont called him "the most politically incorrect, outspoken, iconoclastic and reckless politician of our times". Clark is particularly remembered for his three-volume Alan Clark Diaries, which contains a candid account of political life under Thatcher and a moving description of the weeks preceding his death, when he continued to write until he could no longer focus on the page. Clark's first book, The Donkeys (1961), was a revisionist history of the British Expeditionary Force's (BEF) campaigns at the beginning of the First World War. The book covers Western Front operations during 1915, including the offensives at Neuve Chapelle, Aubers Ridge and Loos, and ending with the enforced resignation of Sir John French as Commander-in-Chief of the BEF, and his replacement by Douglas Haig. Clark describes the battle scenes, and criticizes the actions of several of the generals involved in the heavy loss of life that occurred. Much of the book is based on the political manoeuvres behind the scenes as commanders jostled for influence, and Sir John French's difficulties dealing with his French allies and with Herbert Kitchener. Haig's own diaries are used to demonstrate how Haig positioned himself to take over command. It is regarded as an important work on the British experience of the World War. The book's title was drawn from the expression "Lions led by donkeys" which has been widely used to compare British soldiers with their commanders. In 1921 Princess Evelyn Blücher published her memoirs, which attributed the phrase to OHL (the German GHQ) in 1918. Clark was unable to find the origin of the expression. He prefaced the book with a supposed dialogue between two generals and attributed the dialogue to the memoirs of German general Erich von Falkenhayn. Clark's choice of subject was strongly influenced by Lord Lee of Fareham, a family friend who had never forgotten what he saw as the shambles of the BEF. In developing his work, Clark became close friends with historian Basil Liddell Hart, who acted as his mentor. Liddell Hart read the drafts and was concerned by Clark's "intermittent carelessness". He produced several lists of corrections, which were incorporated, and wrote "It is a fine piece of writing, and often brilliantly penetrating." Even before publication, Clark's work came under attack from supporters of Haig, including the Field Marshal's son and historians John Terraine, Robert Blake and Hugh Trevor-Roper, former tutor to Clark, who was married to Haig's daughter. On publication, The Donkeys received very supportive comments from Lord Beaverbrook, who recommended the work to Winston Churchill, and The Times printed a positive review. Michael Howard, which disagreeing with the work, nonetheless commended its readability and noted that descriptions of battles and battlefields are "sometimes masterly". Field Marshal Montgomery told Clark it was "A Dreadful Tale: You have done a good job in exposing the total failure of the generalship" Condition: Good.

Keywords: WWI, Western Front, Great Britain, Gas Warfare, Trench Warfare, Ypres, Neuve Chapelle, Generalship, Aisne, Douglas Haig, Ferdinand Foch, John French, Kitchener, Henry Rawlinson, Smith-Dorrien, Henry Wilson

[Book #12810]

Price: $40.00

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