Download or read book The Mask of Command written by John Keegan and published by Jonathan Cape. This book was released on 1987 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book discusses generals: who they are, what they do, and how they do it affects the world in which we live.
Download or read book Supreme Command written by Eliot A. Cohen and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-04-17 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The relationship between military leaders and political leaders has always been a complicated one, especially in times of war. When the chips are down, who should run the show -- the politicians or the generals? In Supreme Command, Eliot Cohen examines four great democratic war statesmen -- Abraham Lincoln, Georges Clemenceau, Winston Churchill, and David Ben-Gurion -- to reveal the surprising answer: the politicians. Great states-men do not turn their wars over to their generals, and then stay out of their way. Great statesmen make better generals of their generals. They question and drive their military men, and at key times they overrule their advice. The generals may think they know how to win, but the statesmen are the ones who see the big picture. Lincoln, Clemenceau, Churchill, and Ben-Gurion led four very different kinds of democracy, under the most difficult circumstances imaginable. They came from four very different backgrounds -- backwoods lawyer, dueling French doctor, rogue aristocrat, and impoverished Jewish socialist.Yet they faced similar challenges, not least the possibility that their conduct of the war could bring about their fall from power. Each exhibited mastery of detail and fascination with technology. All four were great learners, who studied war as if it were their own profession, and in many ways mastered it as well as did their generals. All found themselves locked in conflict with military men. All four triumphed. Military men often dismiss politicians as meddlers, doves, or naifs. Yet military men make mistakes. The art of a great leader is to push his subordinates to achieve great things. The lessons of the book apply not just to President Bush and other world leaders in the war on terrorism, but to anyone who faces extreme adversity at the head of a free organization -- including leaders and managers throughout the corporate world. The lessons of Supreme Command will be immediately apparent to all managers and leaders, as well as students of history.
Download or read book Command in War written by Martin Van Creveld and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1985 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many books have been written about strategy, tactics, and great commanders. This is the first book to deal exclusively with the nature of command itself, and to trace its development over two thousand years from ancient Greece to Vietnam. It treats historically the whole variety of problems involved in commanding armies, including staff organization and administration, communications methods and technologies, weaponry, and logistics. And it analyzes the relationship between these problems and military strategy. In vivid descriptions of key battles and campaigns—among others, Napoleon at Jena, Moltke’s Königgrätz campaign, the Arab–Israeli war of 1973, and the Americans in Vietnam—Martin van Creveld focuses on the means of command and shows how those means worked in practice. He finds that technological advances such as the railroad, breech-loading rifles, the telegraph and later the radio, tanks, and helicopters all brought commanders not only new tactical possibilities but also new limitations. Although vast changes have occurred in military thinking and technology, the one constant has been an endless search for certainty—certainty about the state and intentions of the enemy’s forces; certainty about the manifold factors that together constitute the environment in which war is fought, from the weather and terrain to radioactivity and the presence of chemical warfare agents; and certainty about the state, intentions, and activities of one’s own forces. The book concludes that progress in command has usually been achieved less by employing more advanced technologies than by finding ways to transcend the limitations of existing ones.
Download or read book The Mask of Command written by John Keegan and published by Random House. This book was released on 2011-10-31 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Mask of Command is about generals: who they are, what they do and how they affect the world we live in. Through portraits of four generals - archetypal hero Alexander the Great, anti-hero Wellington, the unheroic Ulysses S. Grant and the false heroic of Hitler - John Keegan propounds the view of heroism in warfare as inextricable linked with the political imperative of the age and place. He demonstrates how the role of the general alters with the ethos of the society that creates him and concludes that there is no place for heroism in a nuclear world. The Mask of Command is a companion volume to John Keegan's classic study of the individual soldier, The Face of Battle: together they form a masterpiece of military and human history.
Download or read book The Maze Maker written by Michael Ayrton and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2015-11-04 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “I address you across more than three thousand years, you who live at the conjunction of the Fish and the Water-carrier,” speaks Daedalus, an artisan, inventor, and designer born into an utterly alien family of heroes who value acts of war above all else, a world where his fellow Greeks seem driven only to destroy—an existence he feels compelled to escape. In this fictional autobiography of the father of Icarus, “Apollo’s creature,” a brilliant but flawed man, writer and sculptor Michael Ayrton harnesses the tales of the past to mold a myth for our times. We learn of Daedalus’s increasingly ambitious artifacts and inventions; his fascination with Minoan culture, commerce, and religion, and his efforts to adapt to them; how he comes to design the maze of the horned Minotaur; and how, when he decides that he must flee yet again, he builds two sets of wax wings—wings that will be instruments of his descent into the underworld, a place of both purgatory and rebirth. A compelling mix of history, fable, lore, and meditations on the enigma of art, The Maze Maker will ensnare classicists, artists, and all lovers of story in its convolutions of life and legend. “I never understood the pattern of my life,” writes Daedalus, “so that I have blundered through it in a maze.”
Download or read book The Face of Battle written by John Keegan and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1983-01-27 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Keegan's groundbreaking portrayal of the common soldier in the heat of battle -- a masterpiece that explores the physical and mental aspects of warfare The Face of Battle is military history from the battlefield: a look at the direct experience of individuals at the "point of maximum danger." Without the myth-making elements of rhetoric and xenophobia, and breaking away from the stylized format of battle descriptions, John Keegan has written what is probably the definitive model for military historians. And in his scrupulous reassessment of three battles representative of three different time periods, he manages to convey what the experience of combat meant for the participants, whether they were facing the arrow cloud at the battle of Agincourt, the musket balls at Waterloo, or the steel rain of the Somme. The Face of Battle is a companion volume to John Keegan's classic study of the individual soldier, The Mask of Command: together they form a masterpiece of military and human history.
Download or read book The Mask written by Dean Koontz and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-03-06 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jane is a very good girl. But #1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz shows that appearances can be deceiving—in a deadly way... She appears out of nowhere, a beautiful teenage girl in the middle of traffic on a busy day. Paul and Carol Tracy are drawn to her—she's the child they never thought they could have. But then Carol's nightmares begin—the ghastly sounds in the night...the bloody face in the mirror...the razor-sharp ax. Jane can't remember her past. And as Carol attempts to help her uncover who she was, she has no idea of the horrors that await...
Download or read book The Mask of Command written by Ian Ross and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2016-12-01 with total page 443 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ross presents us with a vision of late Rome that is tense, exhilarating, complex and exotic... When a treacherous act of murder throws the western provinces into turmoil, Aurelius Castus is ordered to take command of the military forces on the Rhine. But he soon discovers that the frontier is a place where the boundaries between civilisation and barbarism, freedom and slavery, honour and treason have little meaning. At the very heart of the conflict are two vulnerable boys. One is Emperor Constantine's young heir, Crispus. The other is Castus's own beloved son, Sabinus. Only Castus stands between them and men who would kill them. With all that he loves in danger, Castus and a handful of loyal men must fight to defend the Roman Empire. But in the heat of battle, can he distinguish friend from enemy?
Download or read book The Price of Admiralty written by John Keegan and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1990-02-01 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Military historian John Keegan’s gripping history of naval warfare’s evolution. In The Price of Admirality, leading military historian John Keegan illuminates the history of naval combat by expertly dissecting four landmark sea battles, each featuring a different type of warship: the Battle of Trafalgar, the Battle of Jutland in World War I, the Battle of Midway in World War II, and the long and arduous Battle of the Atlantic. “The best military historian of our generation.”—Tom Clancy “The Price of Admirality stands alongside Mr. Keegan’s earlier works in its power to impart both the big and little pictures of war.”—The New York Times
Download or read book The Mask of Command written by John Keegan and published by Penguin Books. This book was released on 1988-10-04 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Keegan’s brilliant look at the meaning of leadership In The Mask of Command, John Keegan asks us to consider questions that are seldom asked: What is the definition of leadership? What makes a great military leader? Why is it that men, indeed sometimes entire nations, follow a single leader, often to victory, but with equal dedication also to defeat? Dozens of names come to mind...Napoleon, Lee, Charlemagne, Hannibal, Castro, Hussein. From a wide array, Keegan chooses four commanders who profoundly influenced the course of history: Alexander the Great, the Duke of Wellington, Ulysses S. Grant and Adolph Hitler. All powerful leaders, each cast in a different mold, each with diverse results. The Mask of Command is a companion volume to John Keegan's classic study of the individual soldier, The Face of Battle: together they form a masterpiece of military and human history.
Download or read book Who s Who in World War II written by John Keegan and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2002-09-11 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First Published in 2004. World War II, unlike World War I, was truly a global conflict, fought in every one of the five continents, from the Caribbean to the South China Sea, from New Guinea to the North Cape, and by combatants from every continental region, Latin America, the Balkans, Scandinavia, the Middle East, South Asia and Africa as well as from Europe and North America. It was also, as World War I had not been, a conflict of ideologies. Its dramatis personae was therefore of a peculiar richness, including not only soldiers and statesmen of orthodox background but three dictators of world stature—Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin, demagogues like Goebbels and ideologues like Alfred Rosenberg, politicians of charismatic power, like Franklin Delano Roosevelt, prophets of national renaissance, like Charles de Gaulle, and of national liberation like Mahatma Gandhi, showmen, mountebanks, martyrs, heroes, traitors and quislings—a word we owe to the politics of World War II. This book attempts to assemble the most important among this vast cast of characters, from every country and from every sphere of responsibility— or irresponsibility—and to convey not only the salient facts about the life and career of each but also the flavor of their individuality.
Download or read book Churchill s Generals written by John Keegan and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2012-09-06 with total page 516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Keegan has assembled a cast of seventeen generals whose reputations were made (and some of them broken) by Churchill and the Second World War. Churchill's reputation as prime minister during the Second World War fluctuated according to the successes and failures of his generals. Most of them were household names, and often heroes, during the war years. All of them were prey to the intolerance, interference, irascibility - and the inspiration - of the man who wanted to be both the general in the field and the presiding strategic genius. He sacked his warlords ruthlessly, yet in the end he came to be served by perhaps the greatest generals this country has ever produced. Includes chapters on Wavell, Ironside, Ritchie, Auchinleck, Montgomery, Alexander, Percival, Wingate, Slim and Carton de Wiart. Note: The Publisher regrets that the biographical note for Gary Sheffield is incorrect in the book. Please refer to the Orion website (www.orionbooks.co.uk) for the correct version.
Download or read book Take off the Mask written by Teri Washington and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2003-10 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Christian Living/autobiography
Download or read book Gods of War written by James Lacey and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2021-05-18 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hannibal vs. Scipio. Grant vs. Lee. Rommel vs. Patton. The greatest battles, commanders, and rivalries of all time come to life in this engrossing guide to the geniuses of military history. “A compelling study of military leadership.”—James M. McPherson, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Battle Cry of Freedom Any meeting of genius may create sparks, but when military geniuses meet, their confrontations play out upon a vast panorama of states or civilizations at war, wielding the full destructive power of a mighty nation’s armies. Gods of War is the first single-volume, in-depth examination of the most celebrated military rivalries of all time, and of the rare, world-changing battles in which these great commanders in history matched themselves against true equals. From Caesar and Pompey deciding the fate of the Roman Republic, to Grant and Lee battling for a year during the American Civil War, to Rommel and Montgomery and Patton meeting in battle after battle as Hitler strove for European domination, these match-ups and their corresponding strategies are among the most memorable in history. A thrilling look into both the generals’ lives and their hardest-fought battles, Gods of War is also a thought-provoking analysis of the qualities that make a strong commander and a deep exploration of the historical context in which the contestants were required to wage war, all told with rousing narrative flair. And in a time when technology has made the potential costs of war even greater, it is a masterful look at how military strategy has evolved and what it will take for leaders to guide their nations to peace in the future.
Download or read book The Masks of War written by Carl Builder and published by . This book was released on 1989-02 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why was the Navy ready to clear the skies over the Persian Gulf, yet surprised by the mines laid under it? Why is it that the Army is always prepared for war in Europe, but was caught off guard in Korea and Vietname? And why is the Air Force indifferent to "Star Wars"? In The Masks of War Carl H. Builder asks what motives lie behind the puzzling and often contradictory behavior of America's militay forces. The answer, he finds, has little to do with what party controls the White House or who writes the budget. Far more powerful-and glacially resistant to change-are the entrenched institutions and distinct "personalities" of the three armed services themselves. The Masks of War explains why things sometimes go wrong for the American military. It also explains why things will always go wrong for the military reformers. Changes in the military's strategic thinking have come only in the wake of full-blown disaster-Pearl Harbor, for instance. Today's nuclear world can't afford such lessons.
Download or read book Star Wars written by W. Haden Blackman and published by Graphic Novels. This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Darth Vader is tasked with a mission to locate a lost expeditionary force which is led by the son of Vader's rising nemesis, Moff Tarkin."--Provided by publisher.
Download or read book UVF written by Aaron Edwards and published by Merrion Press. This book was released on 2017-12-01 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: UVF: Behind the Mask is the gripping new history of the Ulster Volunteer Force from its post-1965 incarnation to the present day. Aaron Edwards blends rigorous research with unprecedented access to leading members of the UVF to unearth the startling inner-workings of one of the world’s oldest and most ruthless paramilitary groups. Through interviews with high-profile UVF leaders, such as Billy Mitchell, David Ervine, Billy Wright, Billy Hutchinson and Gary Haggarty, as well as their loyalist rivals including Johnny Adair, Edwards reveals the grisly details behind their sadistic torture and murder techniques and their litany of high-profile atrocities: McGurk’s Bar, the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, the Miami Showband massacre and the Shankill Butchers’ serial-killing spree, amongst others. Edwards’ life and career has led him to the centre of the UVF’s long, dark underbelly; in this defining work he offers a comprehensive and authoritative study of an armed group that continues to play a pivotal role in Northern Irish society.
