Table of Contents

Maps
Tables and Figures 
Foreword by Marc Milner 
Preface by Lieutenant-General Andrew Leslie
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations

Introduction

Part One: The Making of Andy McNaughton

1. Early Life and the Crucible of the First World War
2. The Road to High Command

Part Two: The Problem of Deploying the Army

3. A Willingness to Fight, 1940–1941
4. From ROUNDUP to TORCH
5. Practical Operations of War

Part Three: McNaughton as Military Commander and Trainer

6. The Difficulty of Training in 1940
7. The Politics of Training
8. Enter Montgomery
9. Exercise SPARTAN
10. The Long Shadow of Spartan

Part Four: The End of an Idea

11. The Sicily Incident
12. Broken Dagger: A Corps in Italy
13. The Final Months of McNaughton's Command

Epilogue
Conclusion

Appendices
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Promotional Information

John Nelson Rickard has written an impressive, nuanced work that aptly demonstrates the challenges facing Lieutenant-General A.G.L. McNaughton's command and his creative responses to them. A classic example of the conflict between character and circumstance, The Politics of Command portrays McNaughton as a rational, well-informed decision maker constrained by events and personalities over which he has no control. -- Terry Copp, Department of History, Wilfrid Laurier University and author of Fields of Fire and Cinderella Army

About the Author

John Nelson Rickard is a Captain in the Canadian Armed Forces and has a PhD in military history from the University of New Brunswick.

Reviews

"Captain Rickard has provided a much-needed reassessment of Canada’s top general during the formative years of the Canadian Army in the Second World War. Giving weight to both the systemic challenges that came with the rapid expansion of the army and the personality conflicts – the ‘flame warfare’ – in which McNaughton became engaged, Rickard offers refreshing insight into ‘Andy.’"
*Journal of Military and Strategic Studies*

"Through his nuanced analysis, Rickard’s argument provides a radically different historical interpretation of McNaughton as a senior national commander between 1939 and 1943. Moreover, Rickard convincingly demonstrates that judgements by McNaughton’s peers were greatly coloured by the effects of his dominant personality and by his earlier relationships … Rickard adds significant and relevant context to earlier historical interpretations of McNaughton’s obstinacy with keeping the Canadian Army intact for employment in a European invasion."
*Canadian Military Journal*