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Review Of Non-Fiction Book “The Generals Essay, Research Paper

This paper is a review of J.L. Granatstein?s non-fiction book entitled ?The Generals.” This is one of few books devoted to the scarcely heard of Canadian Generals who served during the second world war. Unfortunately this is the type of book that should only be purchased at a garage sale for a quarter, and then perhaps used to spark a warm fire in a wood fireplace on a cold winter night. The reasoning for this is this book provides little interest to those fascinated by the events that took place during the second world war. The old proverb ?Never judge a book by its cover? definitely holds true for this book in particular. The major themes and focus of this book are absolutely not what one would expect of a book entitled ?The Generals.” If one were hoping to read about famous events or battles that took place during the second world war through the eyes of Canadian Generals, or perhaps any kind of detailed war events, then this book will prove to be a tremendous disappointment. However if one enjoys reading about the petty internal politics, which according to the author, existed within the Canadian military, or what highly ranked officials have been quoted saying about each other, or the constant political ?back-stabbing? that most of the generals inflicted on their peers, then this book holds appeal for the few readers who may fall into this category. Obviously it is realized that politics were a major issue for highly ranked officers in the military, and it was necessary that these politics be discussed. However, the mistake the author made was focusing exclusively on politics and almost totally neglecting to discuss author key aspects relating the lives of the Generals and how successful they were in battle. Most people who pick up this book will find it to be very dry and in some parts incomprehensible. Examples of this are the author?s use of untranslated French quotes, the military lingo and some the abbreviations which were not elaborated on, left the reader wondering exactly what was being discussed. The author also included large amounts of obviously irrelevant details, mainly regarding military politics, while vaguely touching on, and in many cases, neglecting totally major historical events of world war two.

The key downfall to Granatstein?s book about Canadian Generals is the fact that he mainly focused on the political maneuvering of the Generals. The author?s almost exclusive focus on the politics between the highly ranked military officials made this book a very slow and mundane read. Granatstein harped on excessively regarding how the British military leaders felt that McNoughton was ?not suited..? to command an army in the field (Granatstein, p78). Although McNoughton?s failure to see eye-to-eye with the British military was definitely an important issue, devoting almost ten pages to this was absolutely unnecessary to get this point across. Chapter 4, devoted to Crerar also contained similar deficiencies. One major observation within this chapter is that pages 86 to 108 could be ripped out of the book and simply replaced with the words ?Crerar fought his way up the ranks, and with the deposing of McNoughton, became Commander of 1st Canadian Army?. The author?s descent into trivial details was unnecessary given the information he was trying to convey, and given the relative scope of his book. While such details, for example, the representation of gossip and comments vis a vis Crerar, gave insight into the nature of the times the author used this method to excess and almost to the point of frivolity. The following quotes illustrate this point and are representative of the content between pages 86 to 108, which as mentioned above, should have been omitted totally from the book:

?A big, guffawing Guardsman, Leese took a supercilious attitude to Crerar: ?I am having a big problem With Canadian Commanders. Harry Crerar is here — & of course knows nothing of military matters in the field — but is presumably the commander designate of the Canadian Army in England.?…?(Granatstein, p107)

also on page 107:

?…As General Chris Vokes, Simonds?s successor in command of the division, wrote later, Crerar ?had an outstanding administrative and organizational ability and was a disciplinarian, but there was all the difference in the world between the make believe of training in England and the real thing in Italy.? He added that the new corps commander had been ?meticulous in his observance of the clothing regulations. If he was improperly dressed I?m quite sure he felt naked.?(Granatstein, p 107)

This next quote focuses on a related, but different issue:

?…When Montgomery persisted and said that ?our ways must part,? Crerar said he would report he would report the matter to his government. Then, to Crerar?s surprise, Montgomery backed off and declared the matter closed. So it was, and Montgomery send an apologetic letter.

This was one of Crerar?s finest hours…?(Granatstein, p112-113)

This quote illustrates how throughout the book the author had focused on interpersonal politics, and also how he seems to have downplayed the importance of job performance and accomplishments of the generals on the battlefield. Instead of declaring Crerar?s political outmaneuvering of Montgomery his ?finest hours? the author should have declared a key victory or an example of Crerar?s battlefield performance his ?finest hours? simply because his victory over Montgomery did not help the allies win the war, which is the main goal of everyone involved. According to Granatstein?s account of the war it seems that many generals lost track of this fundamental goal and became preoccupied with conflicts among each other.

This pattern was carried over to a subsequent chapter that discussed Tommy Burns military career. ?Perhaps the confrontation

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