Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/627

 1922 SHORT NOTICES 619 powers have naturally attached so much weight to the revelations at his trial that it seems curious to discuss the responsibility for the outbreak of war without mentioning his name. The account of the relations of the allies with the Balkan states, and with Greece in particular, during the war is very good and clear ; and the various attempts, official and unofficial, to initiate peace negotiations receive full attention, though the Smuts- Mensdorf interview appears to be misdated. The treatment of the military operations by M. Bidou is extremely able and businesslike, though the illustrative maps are rather poor. It is characteristic of the French sense of proportion that out of 265 pages, two only, and those relegated to a note, deal with the French forces outside France. The author has succeeded in presenting the war in France as an intelligible whole. Hence he has dwelt at some length on the strategic plans of the combatants, which have of course been more fully disclosed by the defeated than by the victors. He has also picked out skilfully those details which had a permanent importance in tactical development and many of which have been neglected by historians. For example, the ' winter battle ' in Champagne (January to February 1915) taught the French a vast number of lessons as to the conduct of a large-scale offensive in trench warfare, while Gouraud's marvellous defence east of Rheims on 15 July 1918 alone rendered possible the counter-offensive on the Ourcq three days later. More emphasis might have been laid on Nivelle's two autumn battles at Verdun in 1916, whose effortless success led him to promise such far- reaching results for the futile offensive of April 1917, which led to his removal from the supreme command. It is perhaps natural that M. Seignobos in his chapter dealing with the effect of the war in France should scarcely mention the question of defaitisme. But the intrigues of Caillaux, his connexion with Malvy, and of the latter with Almereyda and Bolo, form an important though obscure problem, which was by no means cleared up by the judicial proceedings in the senate. The general con- clusion by M. Lavisse expresses with great eloquence and dignity his view of what France has meant to the world in the past, his belief in her indestructibility and in her role for the future. It is a fitting conclusion to the great work which has been accomplished under his direction. C. R. C.

To a series entitled ' Sammlung wissenschaftlicher Handbiicher fur Studierende und den praktischen Gebrauch ', which appears to have rather intricate subdivisions, Dr. Carl Brinkmann has contributed the fourth ' Abschnitt ', England (Berlin : Vossische Buchhandlung, 1921), of the first ' Abteilung ' (Europa) of the ' Handbuch der Staatengeschichte '. Dr. Brinkmann's name is well known to readers of this Review, and we need not say that he was wisely chosen for the task of digesting into eighty-six pages, including well-balanced lists of authorities, the whole history of England. One or two misprints and one or two disputable judgements on very recent years do not seriously diminish the value of this very sound piece of work, which, amongst other uses, may be recom- mended to English teachers of history who wish their pupils to become familiar with the German language. G.