Salvationists who also have a love for the Army's history have waited 80
years for a definitive account of events brewing like a tempest around the
precedent-setting calling of the High Council, and the subsequent removal from
office of General Bramwell Booth.
In his book "1929," General John Larsson lifts the veil for regular
Salvationists and history buffs with his day-by-day, and sometimes
minute-byminute, account of the crisis that had the Army on a precipice
teetering on extinction.
General Larsson skillfully takes the reader on a roller-coaster ride
beginning with events in late 1928 that led to the summons of the High Council,
and ending with promised reforms during the administrations of General Edward
Higgins and the 15 individuals since to hold the Army's highest office. In
between is a comprehensive diary of twists and turns of a turmoil that hammered
away for us the legal ramifications of a worldwide Movement ensuring safe
passage of the leadership torch from one generation to the next.
In addition, Larsson's treatment throughout is unbiased and fair. The pathos
of the Booth Family engenders the reader's sympathy; in contrast with an
objective understanding of the position of the requisitioning commissioners who
found themselves with the distasteful duty of impeaching no less than the man
who worked alongside his father, and our Founder, since the Army's days as The
Christian Mission.
To make matters worse, for the High Council this was a public relations
nightmare. The press devoured every morsel of news to pass on to a riveted
public."1929" is a must for the casual reader, as well as students of Army
history who may have long-wondered about the dirty details of a subject
heretofore considered taboo.