Team America: Patton, MacArthur, Marshall, Eisenhower, and the World They Forged

The Second World War had its share of strong leaders, but this group biography by O’Connell (Revolutionary: George Washington at War) identifies four U.S. Army generals—Marshall, Eisenhower, Patton, and MacArthur—as the stars who drove the Allies to victory. O’Connell discusses all four men in each chronological chapter, covering childhood, military training, early career postings, involvement in the First World War, the interwar period, the Second World War, and finally postwar years. He frequently references John Keegan’s seminal military study The Mask of Command by analyzing each general’s “mask,” or the carefully constructed image he presented to the public. O’Connell argues that Marshall, Eisenhower, Patton, and MacArthur were remarkable leaders but does concede that they happened to serve in a technological era when deadlier armaments could compensate for the deficiencies of larger conscript armies. O’Connell’s argument tends to dismiss other prominent U.S. Army generals like Arnold, Bradley, and Clark, and largely ignores key U.S. Navy officers Halsey, King, and Nimitz.