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Item Details
| Title:
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SPIES IN UNIFORM
BRITISH MILITARY AND NAVAL INTELLIGENCE ON THE EVE OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR |
| By: |
Matthew S. Seligmann |
| Format: |
Hardback |
| List price:
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£147.50 |
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We currently do not stock this item, please contact the publisher directly for
further information.
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| ISBN 10: |
0199261504 |
| ISBN 13: |
9780199261505 |
| Publisher: |
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS |
| Pub. date: |
5 January, 2006 |
| Pages: |
286 |
| Description: |
Did the British Government go to war in 1914 because of a well-founded fear of a German threat or did it, as some would now argue, send thousands to their deaths to fight against a danger, the existence of which was not even backed by any hard intelligence? To address this question, Spies in Uniform examines the information sent back from Germany by the Government's principal intelligence source, its 'men on the spot', the service attaches in Berlin.Using their reports, previously thought to have been lost, the book demonstrates that the intelligence picture of Germany available to the British government was of a nation that posed a real and imminent threat. In this light, Britain's decision for war in 1914 is easily explained. |
| Synopsis: |
Why did the British government declare war on Germany in August 1914? Was it because Germany posed a threat to British national security? Today many prominent historians would argue that this was not the case and that a million British citizens died needlessly for a misguided cause. This book counters such revisionist arguments. Matthew Seligmann disputes the suggestion that the British government either got its facts wrong about the German threat or even, as some have claimed, deliberately 'invented' it in order to justify an otherwise unnecessary alignment with France and Russia. By examining the military and naval intelligence assessments forwarded from Germany to London by Britain's service attaches in Berlin, its 'men on the spot', Spies in Uniform clearly demonstrates that the British authorities had every reason to be alarmed. From these crucial intelligence documents, previously thought to have been lost, Dr Seligmann shows that in the decade before the First World War, the British government was kept well informed about military and naval developments in the Reich.In particular, the attaches consistently warned that German ambitions to challenge Britain posed a real and imminent danger to national security. As a result, the book concludes that the British government's perception of a German threat before 1914, far from being mistaken or invented, was rooted in hard and credible intelligence. |
| Illustrations: |
1 map |
| Publication: |
UK |
| Imprint: |
Oxford University Press |
| Returns: |
Non-returnable |
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