You may have found it quoted elsewhere, but it is recognisably the same.

Original,
"Like many of his fellow historians, Stevenson challenges much of the accepted wisdom – for example, that the generals had no ideas about how to break the deadlock – yet the prevalent view of the war remains under the influence of the highly critical literature of the late 1920s and early 1930s, with its emphasis on the horrors of the trenches and its portrayal of a futile struggle for obscure or ignoble ends, managed by inept political leaders and unimaginative generals. How many of us saw Oh! What a Lovely War with a slight sense of superiority to the people of the past, so easily duped?"

Your version,
"David Stephenson, with regard to WW1 "a futile struggle for obscure and ignoble ends, managed by inept political leaders and unimaginative generals"