King's College London

This article has as its prime focus not the theories of J.F.C. Fuller and B. H. Liddell Hart, but their zeal to reform the British Army, 1918-39. It explores the strengths and weaknesses they brought to the task, and seeks to relate their aims to broader intellectual currents, especially the notion of a "conflict of generations" that the experience on the Western Front of the First World War heightened. The latter reached a peak of popularity in 1928-33. The article thus seeks to assess Fuller and Liddell Hart's motives and aspirations in the light of a shared passionate desire not to sacrifice their intellectual freedom as critics.