Author: Thomas E. Ricks
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0143124099
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 578

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Book Description
A New York Times bestseller! An epic history of the decline of American military leadership—from the bestselling author of Fiasco and Churchill and Orwell. While history has been kind to the American generals of World War II—Marshall, Eisenhower, Patton, and Bradley—it has been less kind to the generals of the wars that followed, such as Koster, Franks, Sanchez, and Petraeus. In The Generals, Thomas E. Ricks sets out to explain why that is. In chronicling the widening gulf between performance and accountability among the top brass of the U.S. military, Ricks tells the stories of great leaders and suspect ones, generals who rose to the occasion and generals who failed themselves and their soldiers. In Ricks’s hands, this story resounds with larger meaning: about the transmission of values, about strategic thinking, and about the difference between an organization that learns and one that fails.

Author: Roger J. Spiller
Publisher: Praeger
ISBN: 0275931390
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This book is an abridged edition of the critically acclaimed, three-volume Dictionary of American Military Biography (Greenwood Press, 1984). The scope of the original work encompassed a much wider range of people than soldiers; it included politicians, scientists, inventors, explorers, physicians, and humanitarians who had a significant impact on American military history. This new edition focuses on the most distinguished and important battle commanders in American history from colonial times to the present. Each essay incorporates the latest scholarship on the life under study, depicting the background, education, professional development, and accomplishments of the most notable practitioners of the art of war. Unlike most works of this genre, American Military Leaders offers critical appraisals of its subjects. The essays were contributed by some 100 military historians. Cross references and bibliographies are provided. There is a new introduction and an enhanced reference index. This careful abridgement of an acknowledged classic guide to military history can be used as a supplementary text for courses on the evolution of war and American military history. Professional soldiers will welcome its emphasis on battlefield warriors and military history buffs will find it both insightful and enjoyable reading.

Author: Roger J. Spiller
Publisher: Praeger Trade
ISBN: 9780313374890
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 437

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Book Description
This abridged edition of the critically acclaimed, three-volume Dictionary of American Military Biography (Greenwood, 1984) focuses on the most distinguished and important battle commanders in American history from colonial times to the present. Each essay incorporates the latest scholarship on the life under study, depicting the background, education, professional development, and accomplishments of the most notable American practitioners of the art of war. This careful abridgement of an acknowledged classic makes it a useful, authoritative, and affordable source of value to anyone interested in American military history.

Author: Harry Laver
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 0813173124
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 295

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Book Description
What essential leadership lessons do we learn by distilling the actions and ideas of great military commanders such as George Washington, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Colin Powell? That is the fundamental question underlying The Art of Command: Military Leadership from George Washington to Colin Powell. The book illustrates that great leaders become great through conscious effort—a commitment not only to develop vital skills but also to surmount personal shortcomings. Harry S. Laver, Jeffrey J. Matthews, and the other contributing authors identify nine core characteristics of highly effective leadership, such as integrity, determination, vision, and charisma, and nine significant figures in American military history whose careers embody those qualities. The Art of Command examines each figure’s strengths and weaknesses and how those attributes affected their leadership abilities, offering a unique perspective of military leadership in American history. Laver and Matthews have assembled a list of contributors from military, academic, and professional circles, which allows the book to encompass diverse approaches to the study of leadership.

Author: John C. Fredriksen
Publisher: ABC-CLIO
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 488

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Book Description
A comprehensive collection of biographies of the most prominent military leaders in American history. American Military Leaders contains over 400 A-Z biographies of individuals such as Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, who ended hundreds of years of tradition by allowing women to serve on Navy ships; and, Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox, whose rules of clandestine warfare are still followed by the U.S. Special Forces. Coverage centers on the outstanding generals, sergeants, fighter aces, militiamen, theorists, doctors, and nurses who make up America's military history. This volume presents their backgrounds, contributions, and significance to America's fortunes in war. This title also cites works for further research, includes a list of leaders organized by their military titles, and a comprehensive index. 422 A-Z biographies highlight each individual's background, contributions, and significance to America's fortunes in war Illustrated Cites works for further research and includes a list of leaders organized by their military titles

Author: Thomas D. Phillips
Publisher: Casemate
ISBN: 1612003613
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
Profiles of unsung American battlefield commanders—from the Revolutionary War through the Civil War. “A pleasure to read” (Raymond E. Franck, Brig. Gen., USAF, retired). History plays tricks sometimes. During the course of America’s experience, it has enshrined an exceptional few military leaders in our collective consciousness as “great,” while ignoring others often equally as deserving. For example, few of the thousands who pass by the traffic square between Fifth Avenue and Broadway in Manhattan realize that it houses the tomb of one of America’s best military commanders—William Worth—a hero in not one but two of the nation’s wars. Similarly, the Civil War general who never lost a battle and who many military historians believe fought one of the two most perfect battles in history was not Grant, Sherman, Lee, or Jackson; it was Thomas—who never extolled his own cause, but in all likelihood saved his nation’s. At the same time, conflicts themselves have often disappeared from consciousness, the public forgetting the fights the country waged against the Barbary Pirates, the British in 1812, and against the Seminoles and Apaches. In the Shadows of Victory describes the heroics and command acumen of twenty-five superb military leaders whose sacrifice and skill have often been neglected—from the War of Independence through the Mexican War and Civil War, and during numerous Native American conflicts. As such, it provides a fascinating tour through early American military history and the various martial challenges the young nation faced during its first century of existence. “Well written . . . reading about these officers’ achievements is an enjoyable experience.” —The Journal of America’s Military Past

Author: Edgar Puryear
Publisher: Presidio Press
ISBN: 0307574385
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 391

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Book Description
“What does it take to make a great general or a great leader in any field? . . . An excellent contribution to the study of leadership among those who make life-and-death decisions in the most challenging situations—one that could well serve as required reading in both military and business schools.”—Kirkus Reviews Throughout his life, Edgar F. “Beau” Puryear has studied America’s top military leaders. In his research for this book, he has sought to discover what allowed them to rise above their contemporaries; what prepared them for the terrible responsibilities they bore as the commanders of our armed forces during World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf, and on to today; how they are different from you and me. Ultimately, first and foremost, Dr. Puryear discovered that character is the single most important and the most distinctive element shared by these individuals: that character is everything! “Beau Puryear again reaches into his gold mine of research and comes forward with the essence of great generalship. . . . Well-done and a worthy read.”—General Colin L. Powell “We can always learn more about the importance of character to successful leadership. With this book, we do just that.”—General H. Norman Schwarzkopf

Author: Edward Lyman Munson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Leadership
Languages : en
Pages : 108

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Book Description

Author: Thomas E. Ricks
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781101595800
Category : Command of troops
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
An epic history of the decline of American military leadership?from the #1 bestselling author of Fiasco Thomas E. Ricks has made a close study of America's military leaders for three decades, and in The Generals, he chronicles the widening gulf between performance and accountability among the top brass of the U.S. military. While history has been kind to the American generals of World War II?Marshall, Eisenhower, Patton, and Bradley?it has been less kind to others, such as Koster, Franks, Sanchez, and Petraeus. Ricks sets out to explain why that is. We meet great leaders and suspect ones, generals who rose to the occasion and generals who failed themselves and their soldiers. In Ricks's hands, this story resounds with larger meaning: about the transmission of values, about strategic thinking, and about the difference between an organization that learns and one that fails.

Author: John M. Jennings
Publisher: Reaktion Books
ISBN: 1789145848
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 334

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Book Description
Spanning countries and centuries, a “how-not-to” guide to leadership that reveals the most maladroit military commanders in history—now in paperback. For this book, fifteen distinguished historians were given a deceptively simple task: identify their choice for the worst military leader in history and then explain why theirs is the worst. From the clueless Conrad von Hötzendorf and George A. Custer to the criminal Baron Roman F. von Ungern-Sternberg and the bungling Garnet Wolseley, this book presents a rogues’ gallery of military incompetents. Rather than merely rehashing biographical details, the contributors take an original and unconventional look at military leadership in a way that appeals to both specialists and general readers alike. While there are plenty of books that analyze the keys to success, The Worst Military Leaders in History offers lessons of failure to avoid. In other words, this book is a “how-not-to” guide to leadership.