Liddell Hart

[healdav]

I have just read an article about the Chinese "Art of War". The author makes the point that it influenced Liddell Hart's attitude to strategy.

He ends up with, "Liddell Hart has been largely forgotten, but his strategy, now attributed to Sunzi (Sun Tzu), lives on in the popular imagination".

I wonder how many people have even heard of Sunzi? Liddell Hart is hardly forgotten.

But then, the author of the article is a Professor of Pre-modern Chinese and Military History. Vested interest, anyone.

[WhiteStarLine]

39 minutes ago, healdav said:

Vested interest, anyone.

Not at all.  Sun Tzu - widely read and quoted and was certainly taught to Australian officers in the 1980s and probably still is.  He predated Liddell Hart by around 2,500 years.  I still have his book somewhere and some of his anecdotes / insights are unforgettable even after I first heard them 45 years ago.

Strongly agree with you that it is incorrect to say that Liddell Hart has been 'largely forgotten'.  I just did a search on both names in a popular search engine.  One received 2.2 million results and the other 1.8 million.  So both are widely recognised in their specialist sphere.

Realistically, if we take the 5 largest armies in the world (China - India - USA - Russia - North Korea) the officer class as a whole is probably more likely to recognise Sun Tzu than Liddell Hart. 

Cheers, Bill 

[healdav]

1 hour ago, WhiteStarLine said:

Not at all.  Sun Tzu - widely read and quoted and was certainly taught to Australian officers in the 1980s and probably still is.  He predated Liddell Hart by around 2,500 years.  I still have his book somewhere and some of his anecdotes / insights are unforgettable even after I first heard them 45 years ago.

Strongly agree with you that it is incorrect to say that Liddell Hart has been 'largely forgotten'.  I just did a search on both names in a popular search engine.  One received 2.2 million results and the other 1.8 million.  So both are widely recognised in their specialist sphere.

Realistically, if we take the 5 largest armies in the world (China - India - USA - Russia - North Korea) the officer class as a whole is probably more likely to recognise Sun Tzu than Liddell Hart. 

Cheers, Bill 

I agree with you, but it seems a bit bizarre for a supposed Professor of military history to say that Liddell Hart is largely forgotten. Of course, he omitted to say who it was largely forgotten by. History Professors, perhaps?

[Old Forge]

It may well be vested interest - it's certainly a cheap shot. FWIW, Brian Bond's book Liddell Hart* doesn't mention Sun Tzu in the Index, although he's mentioned in the introduction:

'When Liddell Hart died suddenly on 29 January 1970 we had just begun to collaborate on a volume of quotations to illustrate the outstanding military thinkers from Sun Tzu to the present.'

A footnote adds that this work was subsequently taken on and published by Adrian Liddell Hart as The Pen and the Sword.

All the best,

Richard

* Prof Bond explains that his book isn't a biography, it's the first authorised full-length appraisal of LH's military thought.

[healdav]

13 hours ago, Old Forge said:

It may well be vested interest - it's certainly a cheap shot. FWIW, Brian Bond's book Liddell Hart* doesn't mention Sun Tzu in the Index, although he's mentioned in the introduction:

'When Liddell Hart died suddenly on 29 January 1970 we had just begun to collaborate on a volume of quotations to illustrate the outstanding military thinkers from Sun Tzu to the present.'

A footnote adds that this work was subsequently taken on and published by Adrian Liddell Hart as The Pen and the Sword.

All the best,

Richard

* Prof Bond explains that his book isn't a biography, it's the first authorised full-length appraisal of LH's military thought.

I'm certain that the remark is a vested interest by a Professor who is trying to increase his reputation for intellectual thought at some one else's expense.

I've suffered from this twice, from different universities in different countries.

If writing a book, never ever let a university professor (or lecturer, whatever) get their hands on it in any way. They will always try to steal it from you, and get their own name in print without any effort.