Forgotten Victory

By Gary Sheffield

The First World War is arguably the most misunderstood event in twentieth century history.

In this classic book, the leading military historian Professor Gary Sheffield argues that while the war was certainly tragic, it was not futile; and although frequently condemned as ‘lions led by donkeys’, in reality the British citizen army became a highly effective fighting force, which in 1918 won the greatest series of victories in British military history.

Forgotten Victory, first published in 2001 is a challenging and controversial book. It was described in 2013 by Professor David Reynolds as ‘the most significant of the revisionist works’ on the British Army in the First World War.

While it does not underestimate the scale of the human tragedy or play down the disasters, it explodes many myths about the war, placing it in its true historical context.

For this new edition, Forgotten Victory has been updated with a new chapter.