110 Years Ago Today, the 141 Days of the Somme Began

 

Some Random Thoughts

By Editor/Publisher Mike Hanlon

One summer day in 2016, I had a wonderful time in Sacramento, CA, making a presentation on the coming centennial of the Battle of the Somme for the city library's World War I Revisited Project. The turn-out was a "full house" and the audience was engaged and knowledgeable about the war. Our host, James Scott, could not have been more hospitable and helpful. I made some notes for my PowerPoint presentation. Here are some of my comments and images I used during the presentation, somewhat revised over the ensuing decade. Please keep in mind these are my views alone.  In the past, Roads to the Great War has published numerous articles on the famous battle; at the bottom you can find some tips on how to quickly access them.

1.  In the English-speaking world the Somme remains the war's signature battle. It gave the 20th century its most haunting image (at least before the mushroom cloud), a soldier rising out of a trench mowed down in no-man's-land in his tracks.

 

Men of the Newfoundland Regiment, 29th Division, 1 July 1916
In a Short Time 90 Percent of These Men Will Be Dead, Dying, or Wounded

2.  The First Day on the Somme is a story told over and over, but the next 140 days of the battle are the more important part of the tale. In the larger British sector, where the original intention was the rupture the German line, the battle seamlessly evolved into a war of attrition. The 60,000 killed and wounded they suffered on 1 July 1916 was multiplied by a factor of seven. Furthermore, in some dance of death, the German Army—despite having all the defensive advantages—managed to closely parallel the British losses.

3. Many authors focus blame for the incredible casualties on either Douglas Haig or 4th Army commander, Henry Rawlinson. Another entry in that discussion should be none other than General Joffre. Recall that France was the dominant member of the 1916 coalition and led (forcefully) the planning for that year's campaign. It was to be a joint French-British attack, originally with 39 French divisions committed. The requirements of dealing with Verdun did not inhibit Joffre's drive for the attack to proceed despite:

a.  An ever diminishing availability of French divisions, and

b. The skepticism about the whole affair from the northern sector commander, Ferdinand Foch.

Thiepval, Now Site of the Largest Somme Memorial
Close to the Front Line But Not Captured Until September 1916

4.  General Foch was one of the victims of the Somme. After the failure of the five-month battles and losses that accumulated at the same rate as Verdun, he found himself in disfavor and was pushed to the side in favor of the rising star, Robert Nivelle. Luckily, Foch was rehabilitated in time to become the most important Allied general of the 1918 campaign.

5.  The rolling, apparently open country of the Somme looked like the perfect location to attempt a major breakthrough. However, the Germans had been in the sector since October 1914 and converted every village, rise, ridge, and forest into a defensive stronghold. After the failure of the first day's assault, following the sound military principle of reinforcing success, rather than failure, Haig's staff decided to push south of the Albert-Baupame Road where there had been some modest, although incredibly expensive success around Fricourt village, and the singular fully successful British operation of the day, the capture of Montauban village.  The valley they chose to move through had a horseshoe of five small forests: Mametz, Bazantin, High, Delville, and Trones Woods. Each was a superb defensive position on a plateau, commanding the gently rising surrounding countryside. Readers know the story of Belleau Wood for the U.S. Marines. The middle phase of the Somme was Belleau Wood times five for the British Army.

6. One mystery about the Somme that I've never seen satisfactorily explained is how the German Army, which had minimal casualties on 1 July, managed to catch up to the grand total for the British Army over the next 140 days, despite being on the defensive throughout. They started out with all the advantageous positions, and they knew the Allies' intentions. Didn't the machine gun and massed artillery give the defenders a decisive advantage? Everywhere else they did. (I've concluded since I first wrote this section that a good portion of the German losses must have been due to their commanders obsessive practice of immediately counterattacking to regain any lost ground.)

Vigil at Thiepval Memorial, July 2016

7.  The Pals Battalions and, in general, the commitment of the under-trained New Army divisions are part of the tragic dimension of the Somme and elements of its compelling mythic heritage with its soccer balls, the Leaning Virgin, sacred trees, and countless memorials and cemeteries of varied design. The near-annihilation of the experienced 29th Division (with eight months continual combat at Gallipoli) in trying to capture the mine site on Hawthorne Ridge and Y-Ravine, however, shows that there were more fundamental flaws in the initial concept that the inexperience of the troops.

Hull Commercial Pals Approaching the Somme, 28 June 1916

8.  The poor bloody infantry suffered the most, of course. But the failure of the campaign was due to the poor performance of the artillery. To begin with, the Royal Artillery simply lacked enough guns, especially larger pieces. None of their major missions—cutting the wire, destroying trenches and redoubts, supporting the advancing infantry, and suppressing enemy artillery—were accomplished to an acceptable level. Plus, they suffered a high number of duds, many of which came from American suppliers.

9.  The Somme is the Great War's most remembered battle (at least in the English-speaking world). Last time I checked, the U.S. Library of Congress catalog had 289 citations for the "Battle of the Somme" and only 161 entries–combined–for the three biggest American battles of the war, the Second  Marne, St. Mihiel, and the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. I'm sure the ratio would be much greater in, say, the British Library. Why the Somme fascination? Some speculations:

a.  It was almost inhuman in scale. The casualties for the British on that first day, and for both sides for its duration are draw-dropping. Beside those wounded, crippled-for-life and killed, there is no better symbol of the Somme than the Lochnagar Mine Crater shown above, which was fired on the first morning of the battle.

b.  Much of what we know about the battle comes from British sources, and the Somme sent shock waves through the British Empire like few other events in  history (India Mutiny?, Fall of Singapore?). It affected every level of their stratified society from the working class Pals of Accrington to the graduates of the "playing fields of Eton." (Over 1,100 Etonians died on the Great War's battlefields.) It drew-in and touched every corner of the empire.  Canadians, Anzacs, South Africans, and even Indian Lancers, served and died at the Somme.

Robert Graves

Alan Seeger

c. The Somme marks a literary fault line. The early war poets, like Rupert Brooke, John McCrae, and Alan Seeger, wrote of tradition, duty, and sacrifice. Well, Seeger dutifully met his "Rendezvous with Death" at the Somme on 4 July 1916, while serving with the French Foreign Legion. About the same time, two junior officers of the 38th Welsh Division named Siegfried Sassoon and Robert Graves were in the neighborhood of  Mametz Wood, where their units would encounter a brutal fights. They would later help initiate what has become the more famous school of war writers, the rejectors of the past, who saw the war as futile and a great betrayal. Graves later wrote, "I found in Mametz Wood a certain cure for lust of blood" and aptly titled his war memoir Goodbye to All That.

10.  Final Irony

After all that happened in 1916, what happened next truly must have seemed to have made the whole effort appear futile. The red area on the map below marks all the territory captured by British and French forces in the 1916 battle. The green line marks Operation Alberich, AKA, the retreat to the Hindenburg Line (9 Feb–20 Mar 1917). The Allies were "gifted" with three times the territory they had bled barrels for, and the Germans were manning a shorter and much more defensible front line.

Roads to the Great War
Has Much More on the Battle of the Somme

Just enter "Somme 1916" in the search box at the top of the screen and you will find over two dozen articles we have presented in the past on the battle.

Revised from my earlier two-part version of this article, which have been removed from the site. MH

Recommended: The World War One Historical Association's Special BOOKS! Issue

I just stumbled across an excellent resource for those of you who are always looking for some fresh World War I titles to read. In 2018 Dana Lombardy of the Association put together a special and eclectic edition of their journal which has reviews of over 100 books of many categories, plus other resources (including Roads to the Great War) where you can find other recommendations. Just click on the link below to download the 36-page pdf file.  MH

 Download HERE

T.E. Lawrence on Desert Fighting with the Arabs

 

Lawrence Driving Talbot Automobile in Wadi Itm with
Emir Feisal bin Husain al-Hashimi Seated in the Front Passenger Seat

From the Arab Bulletin, 20 August 1917

• Do not try to trade on what you know of fighting. The Hejaz confounds ordinary tactics. 

• Learn the Bedu principles of war as thoroughly and as quickly as you can, for till you know them your advice will be no good to the Sherif (ruler or prince). Unnumbered generations of tribal raids have taught them more about some parts of the business than we will ever know. 

• In familiar conditions they fight well, but strange events cause panic. Keep your unit small. Their raiding parties are usually from one hundred to two hundred men, and if you take a crowd they only get confused. Also their sheikhs (tribal leaders), while admirable company commanders, are too 'set' to learn to handle the equivalents of battalions or regiments. 

• Don't attempt unusual things, unless they appeal to the sporting instinct Bedu have so strongly, unless success is obvious. 

• If the objective is a good one (booty) they will attack like fiends, they are splendid scouts, their mobility gives you the advantage that will win this local war, they make proper use of their knowledge of the country (don't take tribesmen to places they do not know), and the gazelle-hunters, who form a proportion of the better men, are great shots at visible targets. 

• A sheikh from one tribe cannot give orders to men from another; a Sherif is necessary to command a mixed tribal force.

• If there is plunder in prospect, and the odds are at all equal, you will win. 

• Do not waste Bedu attacking trenches (they will not stand casualties) or in trying to defend a position, for they cannot sit still without slacking. The more unorthodox and Arab your proceedings, the more likely you are to have the Turks cold, for they lack initiative and expect you to. 

• Don't play for safety.

Also see: "Eight Rules of Leadership from T.E. Lawrence" HERE

The Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force

The Men of the New Force

Origins

The Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (AN&MEF) was a small volunteer unit of approximately 2,000 men raised hastily in August 1914. It the first military unit raised in 1914 for service overseas. The force was formed at the request of the British Admiralty immediately following the outbreak of the war. Its primary objective was to seize and destroy German wireless radio stations in the south-west Pacific, specifically in German New Guinea. These communication hubs posed a severe strategic threat because they were used by Vice Admiral Maximilian von Spee's East Asia Squadron to track Allied merchant shipping and naval movements

The men who enlisted in the AN&MEF were trained in a hurry - ready for action. Before recruiting began, hundreds of men registered their interest to serve in the inevitable war. They signed up with the army, navy and other organizations, such as the South African Soldiers' Association. Mostly these men were members of the Citizen Forces or the Naval Reserves, or veterans of previous conflicts.

The Naval Force Approaches

Opening Operations

After highly expedited training, the  AN&MEF approached Blanche Bay, just south of Rabaul, at dawn on 11 September 1914. A naval force, comprising Sydney, Encounter, Yarra, Warrego, Berrima and the supply ship Aorangi, and the submarines AE1 and AE2, gathered at Port Moresby before rendezvousing with HMAS Australia on 9 September en route to Rabaul.

The military leaders had expected the occupation to be a simple exercise; nevertheless they had sent 1,500 men and almost the entire Australian fleet. Then, not having encountered any naval formations or coastal defense, the AN&MEF became complacent. Holmes, in particular, convinced himself that he could acquire new territory for the British empire “without a shot being fired”.

Two parties of 25 naval reservists went ashore at the settlements of Herbertshöhe and Kabakaul, on the south-eastern shore of the bay. Their orders were to capture the radio station at Bitapaka, about seven kilometers inland. Lieutenant R.G. Bowen, RAN, led his men from Kabakaul and headed inland along a narrow road. They had travelled less than two kilometers when they encountered three Germans and about 20 New Guineans fighting for the Germans. “This is where the fighting began, shots being exchanged as fast as we could put them in our barrels,” recalled Able Seaman Sidney Staines, a member of the lead party. “Bullets were buzzing all around us … I was expecting to drop anytime at this stage, so we got together and started firing volleys.”

The Troops Head Ashore

The Australians soon captured the group after wounding one of the Germans. A map found on one of the prisoners revealed German plans to resist the Australian troops by means of a system of trenches, rifle pits and mines. Bowen sent for reinforcements and pushed on. Some New Guineans had climbed the tall trees and were firing from elevated positions. The Australians made slow progress and “were constantly subjected to rifle fire by an unseen enemy”, which forced them from the narrow road into dense jungle. The fighting turned out to be more brutal than either the force's troops or commanders anticipated

At 7.00 p.m. the wireless station was captured and Admiral Patey demanded the German acting governor, Dr Edward Haber, surrender the entire colony. Although Haber did not officially surrender, he told Patey that Rabaul and Herbertshöhe were “unfortified” and “no opposition [would] be offered to the military occupation”. The next day the naval reservists marched from Kabakaul to Herbertshöhe, and Berrimalanded a garrison at Rabaul. On Sunday 13 September, AN&MEF forces raised the Union Jack in Rabaul. 

 Australian Flag Is Raised in Angorum, New Guinea

WWI Firsts for Australia 

Able Seaman Bill Williams, aged 28, was wounded by German sniper fire at Bita Paka on 11 September. He died on HMAS Berrima the same day—the first recorded Australian casualty of World War I. 

Lieutenant Thomas Bond, aged 52, was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his bravery at Bita Paka. With one officer and one man, he disarmed eight Germans. This would have humiliated the Germans in front of the 20 Micronesian militia who accompanied them. Bond had the honor of receiving the first Australian decoration of the war. He later joined the 1st Royal Australian Navy Bridging Train (RANBT) and served in the Gallipoli, Sinai, and Palestine campaigns.

On the evening of 14 September 1914, the navy lost a vessel. HMA Submarine AE1 sank without a trace off Neulauenburg (modern-day Duke of York Islands), northeast of New Guinea. On board, all 35 British and Australian submariners were killed. (An archaeological wreck survey revealed an implosion that could have been accidental.) 

War in the South Pacific
Includes Operations of the AN&MEF   

The Extended War in the South Pacific

A force of New Zealand troops, escorted by five RAN ships and a French ship, captured and occupied German Samoa on 30 August 1914. On 9 September, a landing party of 25 naval personnel from HMAS Melbourne landed on Nauru. They arrested the German administrator and destroyed the wireless equipment. Australian troops occupied the island until the end of the war.

The Japanese had declared war on Germany by 23 August 1914. Japan took control of all Germany's colonial possessions in East Asia and Micronesia. These actions annoyed the commanders of the Australian mandated territories because the East Asian sites were valuable.

Following the capture of German possessions in the region, the AN&MEF provided occupation forces for the duration of the war.   The occupation force included Australian nurses, who also later were part of the "Tropical Force." A military government was subsequently set up by Holmes.  On 9 January 1915,  Holmes handed over command of the AN&MEF to Brigadier General Sir Samuel Pethebridge, the former Secretary of the Department of Defence. Holmes returned to Australia in early 1915 and re-enlisted in the AIF, as did most of his men.  Many later served in Egypt, Gallipoli, Sinai, and Palestine and on the Western Front. A large number became casualties, including Holmes, who was killed in action in 1917. They were replaced by the 3rd Battalion, AN&MEF, which was known as the Tropical Force because it had been specially enlisted for service in the tropics.  The size of the garrison at this time was set at a total of 600 men. 

German Flag Captured at Bita Paka

Following the end of hostilities in November 1918 the role of the AN&MEF in the former German colonies in New Guinea had become primarily one of civil administration, although it continued to provide a garrison for the next two and a half years.

Sources: Anzac Portal;  Wikipedia; Virtual War Memorial Australia

Ten Views of Artillery in the Great War

1.  A Poilu Observes Artillery Fire

The rumbling of the artillery became more and more frequent and ended up forming a single rumbling of the whole earth. From all sides, outgoing bursts and explosions threw forth their flashing beams which lit up the dark sky over our heads with strips of light in all directions. Then the bombing grew so heavy that the flashes became continuous. In the midst of the uninterrupted chain of thunder claps we could see each other directly, helmets streaming like the bodies of fish, gleaming black iron shovels, and the whitish drops of the endless rain, truly it was like moonlight created by cannon fire.

Henri Barbusse, Under Fire

2.  An Illustrator's View of the Big Guns

3.  AI's Answer to:  "What  can  you  tell  me  about artillery  in  WWI?"

Artillery was the dominant and most destructive weapon of World War I, completely shaping how the war was fought. It caused up to 70 percent of all battlefield casualties and dictated military tactics on both sides. 

       Destructiveness

• Massive Casualties: It caused the majority of deaths and physical trauma during the conflict.
• Shell Shock: The constant psychological terror of bombardment created severe psychological trauma.
• Landscape Alteration: Millions of shells blasted fields into muddy, cratered, and completely unrecognizable terrain.

Tactical Impact 

• Enforced Trench Warfare: Heavy fire forced soldiers underground into deep defensive trenches for survival.
• No Man's Land: Continuous bombardment destroyed all cover between opposing trenches.
• Barbed Wire Destruction: Armies used prolonged bombardments to cut wire before infantry charges. 

Evolution of Tactics

• Flash Spotting: New scientific methods located enemy guns by measuring sound and light flashes.
• Creeping Barrage: Artillery fired just ahead of advancing infantry to shield them from defenders.
• Counter-Battery Fire: Armies dedicated specific batteries solely to destroying enemy artillery pieces.     
•                                                 
• From Gemini at Google Chrome
• 
  

4.  A Poet's View

5. The Human Body's Response to Being Bombarded

The first thing a soldier would experience would be the concussive force of the explosion, caused by the rapid release of energy compressing the air particles. This is often referred to as “over-pressure.” Soldiers feel like the air is sucked out of the area, causing a tightening of the skin and pulsating of the eyes.

Split milliseconds after the over-pressure strikes and radiates outwards, it is followed by shock waves that create a vacuum in the immediate area of the explosion. Oxygen is pushed out, sucked back in, and then immediately pushed out again into a gut-smashing wave of energy. The blast wave followed by the shock wave creates havoc on internal organs—brain, lungs, stomach—often pulverizing them if the soldier is too close to the point of impact. Air sucked out of the lungs leaves the soldier gasping for breath. The shock wave is felt strongly in the gut. Blood is forced out of organs and arteries upwards towards the brain. After successive blasts, eardrums could rupture causing bleeding out of the ears.

This is then followed by the outward force of the rapidly expanding gases that grabs anything in the nearby area and throws it outward with relentless force. Soldiers standing are the most vulnerable to this part of the blast, as if they are hurled into something solid—such as a tree or building—they can be killed by the impact. Lying on the ground can often mitigate this effect, as the pulse of the blast rolls over them and the shock is dissipated up and out.

The sound—or report—of the blast was incredibly loud, damaging eardrums. Heat from the explosion would burn those caught in the blast—although the over-pressure would have already killed them.

So much for the explosion itself.

Shells are encased with metal sheathing, which upon detonation is broken up into tiny fragments that are projected upwards and outwards at speeds of over 60 miles per hour. These shards embed in flesh or—if large enough—rip parts of the body away. Soldiers struck directly would explode in all directions, leaving nothing remaining of their existence other than blood and fragments of bone, flesh, organs, and uniform scraps. Soldiers entering Belleau Wood in 1918 remarked with disgust at the bodies and body parts hanging from high in the shattered trees. Shrapnel shredded trees, bushes, rocks, anything in the area, creating more deadly fragments.

Multiply this by the rate of in-coming fire. Say, one concussion every second, and bombardments could last for hours.

The Angry Staff Officer

6.  A Gunner's View of Loading and Firing a 60-pounder Field Heavy Gun

First of all you put the shell into the breech, then you have a long ramming tool, a drift they called it; you stand with your back to the gun and ram it home. When you’d put that in, you put the cartridge in. Then you closed the breech, which closed the breech block itself, had threads on it. Well then the lever had a link connecting it from the lever itself to the bottom of the breech block, and when you’ve closed the breech lever further, that link caused the breech block to revolve by sixty degrees, thereby locking all the threads together. Well then there was a hole right through the breech block by which means you ignited the cartridge.  You put in a little tube, revolved it ninety degrees, which locked it, and then there was a little loop on that, metal ring on that, and you hooked your lanyard into that and when you pulled that this caused a flash – almost like striking a match – and the flash went through and impinged on the red end of the cartridge, thereby igniting the cartridge, and that blew the shell out.

Leonard Ounsworth, Royal Garrison Artillery

7.  The Lives of Artillery Shells

8.  A Statistician's View

9.  Inside a 37 MM Shell

10. Roads to the Great War's Library of Artillery Articles, HERE

Henry Ford + Colorization Technology = Marvelous Images of the American Homefront at War

There was a time between 1915 and the mid-1920s when Henry Ford was a movie mogul, overseeing the largest motion picture production and distribution operation on the planet. Today, these motion pictures and other films produced or acquired by the Ford Motor Company between about 1914 and 1954 are preserved at the National Archives.   Almost every facet of the American experience from the mid-1910s through the early 1920s is portrayed, including business, city life, farming, manufacturing, news events, recreation, rural life, sports, transportation, and WORLD WAR ONE.  Further, modern digital artists have started to colorize them.  A reel covering America in the 1910s has been converted by Samuel Francois-Steininger of Paris-based Composite Films.   Here is a collection of stills I've captured from the National Archives. I don't think they require captions, but I should mention for anyone who doesn't recognize him, #4 is Teddy Roosevelt and the last is the Unknown Soldier. These are displayed at 560px width and can be enlarged to 800px by clicking on them. 

When Douglas MacArthur "Voted" for John J. Pershing as Commander of the AEF

Secretary of War Newton Baker & Captain Douglas MacArthur

By Brigadier General John S.D. Eisenhower

Command of the American Expeditionary Force  was one of the most important decisions that Secretary of War Newton Baker and President Wilson would ever make, as the officer selected would have to be capable of carrying tremendous responsibility on his own. Secretary Baker could not look over the shoulder of the man sent to command in Europe.

Pershing, who had recently commanded the Punitive Expedition into Mexico, had not always been Baker's first choice. In early 1917 the most prestigious field officer in the United States Army was Major General Frederick Funston, commanding the Southern Department at San Antonio, Texas. A Medal of Honor recipient and seventeen years a general officer, Funston was expected to lead any force the United States would put into the field. It was not to be. The command picture changed drastically during the evening of 19 February 1917. Army duty officers Brigadier General Peyton March and Major Douglas MacArthur received a message disclosing that General Funston had died of a massive heart attack that evening while dining out at a local hotel in San Antonio. MacArthur, the junior of the pair, was detailed to deliver the message to Secretary of War Baker who was with the President at a dinner party. 

MacArthur with His Staff During the St. Mihiel Offensive

Wilson and Baker, though somewhat shaken, took the news in stride. As MacArthur waited for instructions, they beckoned for him to follow as they went into an adjacent room. First the President dictated a message of sympathy to Mrs. Funston. Then turning to Baker, he asked, ''What now, Newton, who will take the Army over [there]?'

Baker, perhaps stalling for time, turned to  MacArthur, "Whom do you think the Army would choose, Major?" ''I cannot, of course, speak for the Army, but for myself the choice would unquestionably be General Pershing." 

Wilson looked at the young officer for a long moment. Then he said quietly, "It would be a good choice." 

Wilson's reaction was widely shared, and almost certainly would have been reached without MacArthur's contribution. Even though Funston had been Pershing's superior, Pershing might have been selected in any case, for Baker and Scott had come to realize that Pershing possessed certain qualities that Funston lacked. The most obvious of these was an ability to deal with people who held opposing views. Pershing was no diplomat, but compared to the impetuous Funston, he was a model of self-restraint. With Funston out of contention, the choice would be even easier.

General Pershing Decorates Bg. Gen. MacArthur for His War Service

Foremost among Pershing's remaining competitors was Major General Leonard Wood, the Army chief of staff between 1910 and 1914. In that position, Wood had been highly effective. But despite his stellar performance, Wood had shortcomings, one of which was a genius for stirring up controversy. He advocated military preparedness so blatantly that the Wilson administration-always determined to avoid saber-rattling-had become alarmed. . .When he provided a rostrum from which Roosevelt attacked the Wilson administration on the preparedness issue, Secretary Baker transferred him to command the Southeastern Department, with headquarters in Charleston, South Carolina. 

(Editor's Comment:  From the moment in 1903 in San Francisco that Lt. Douglas MacArthur and Captain John J. Pershing were introduced, the two men had a friendly/hostile, hot/cold,  friendship/rivalry. It lasted right up to Pershing's death in 1948. I might write an article about it for Roads some day. It's probably worth a book, though. MH) 

From Yanks by Bg. General John S.D. Eisenhower

Map Series #30 The Famine of 1918

 

Click on Map to Enlarge

Famine with the accompanying civilian deaths and civil disorder on the homefronts was a primary driving force behind the collapse of the Central Powers. The severe food shortages stemmed from multiple causes. 

1)The British Royal Navy’s blockade cut off essential food imports and agricultural fertilizers to Germany and Austria-Hungary.

2) Manpower shortages due to military conscription.

3) Crop failures, especially with potatoes that led to the Turnip Winter of 1916–1917.

4) Threats of revolution in both the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires as actually happened in Russia. (Russia's February 1917 Revolution began with food riots.)

Also, see our articles on The Food War (HERE)

Sources: Vox from data provided by "Food Guide for War Service at Home" and d-maps.com

Peak Higher Ed: How to Survive the Looming Academic Crisis

  

By Bryan Alexander

John Hopkins University Press, 2026

Reviewed by David F. Beer

Editor’s Note:  Readers probably recognize that this work is somewhat distant from our usual material. However,  author and futurist Bryan Alexander is one of our regular reviewers and contributors, and I always try to support their work. Also, Bryan's book covers a topic of great importance to all of us. MH

Bryan Alexander at a Georgetown University Event

In the week since getting Bryan Alexander’s latest book on higher education I have noticed four articles in our local newspaper on topics Bryan seriously and methodically explores in one way or another. The first article was on how graduating seniors at the University of Texas are having a tougher time finding jobs this spring and another was on how universities are becoming concerned about grade inflation. In another, a local reporter described a mock funeral, complete with ancient horse-driven hearse, which took place one recent afternoon near our campus protesting how politicians and administrators are "killing" the university. The fourth article was a charming but bittersweet piece by a father whose young daughter had anxiously asked him if “everyone has to go to college.” The dad, who a few years back would have answered with a definite yes, realized now he isn’t so sure.

These incidental bits of information probably caught my attention due to having spent almost all my working life as a teacher in a university. So reading Bryan Alexander’s Peak Higher Ed: How to Survive the Looming Academic Crisis has turned out to be what I feel is the most accurate and impactful study on the futures of higher education that any of us could hope to currently encounter. This is a recent publication by the author, and his previous books have pointed to what he so elegantly deals with in this one: the possible futures of the Academy—namely, where our endangered universities and colleges are headed and how we will survive and hopefully prosper within new circumstances and forces.

Order HERE

In eight chapters, with a full introduction and copious notes (plus an index) the author examines the current state of America’s higher education and admits that all is not well. Simply put, we have over-built and over-extended. So where do we go from here and what possibilities does the future hold? These two questions are analytically described, investigated, evaluated, and (in my opinion) as thoroughly processed and answered as is possible at this time. Read the book and you will see what I mean.

David F. Beer

P.S.  If you would like to see how America's higher ed responded to the challenge of the First World War, read our articles on the experiences of Penn State HERE and Clemson HERE