![]() ![]() While the author is by no means a strong stylist-too fond of clichés, given to piling up adjectives, often clumsy on the sentence level-he’s a first-rate storyteller, and these three men give him plenty of material. Groom takes each of them from youth to the ends of their careers, taking advantage of opportunities to comment on historical trends. Steady, self-effacing Marshall was a team player, while the other two were ego-driven and jealous of all rivals. MacArthur was perhaps the finest field general of them all, yet like Marshall, his greatest achievement may have come when the war was over, in creating the groundwork for modern Japan. He remains best known for the plan that led to the economic revival of Europe after the war. ![]() ![]() Marshall became typecast as a staff officer, too valuable at organizing logistics, personnel, and supply to risk in a combat command. Patton developed the essentials of tank warfare in World War I and went on to use them brilliantly in World War II. Groom’s ( The Aviators: Eddie Rickenbacker, Jimmy Doolittle, Charles Lindbergh, and the Epic Age of Flight, 2014, etc.) three subjects are both interesting in their own rights and sufficiently contrasting personalities to keep the narrative from bogging down. Interwoven biographies of three of the great American military leaders of the 20th century. ![]()
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