World Generals

When the Oracle of Delphi told Alexander the Great that he was invincible, it was right.
The son of the great King Philip II of Macedonia, Alexander was educated by Aristotle and commanded a wing of his father's army in the victory over the Thebans and Athenians at the Battle of Chaeronea—all when he was still just a teenager. By the time of his death at age 32, he had amassed an empire that stretched from the Adriatic Sea to the Indus River and included all of Persia and most of Egypt. He ruled as both the shah of Persia and as a pharaoh of Egypt by right of conquest, and he was also crowned king of Asia.

"Great Generals of World War II" presents a captivating account that reveals the strategic genius and unwavering determination of the twelve most prominent military commanders of the Second World War.

History has been kinder to the American generals of World War II - Marshall, Eisenhower, Patton, and Bradley - than to the generals of the wars that followed. Is this merely nostalgia? Here, Thomas E. Ricks answers the question definitively: No, it is not, in no small part because of a widening gulf between performance and accountability.
During World War II, scores of American generals were relieved of command simply for not being good enough.