The Mantle of Command: FDR at War, 1941-1942 - Rilegato

Hamilton, Nigel

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0547775245 ISBN 13: 9780547775241

Casa editrice: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014

Riassunto

Based on years of archival research and interviews with the last surviving aides and Roosevelt family members, Nigel Hamilton offers a definitive account of FDR’s masterful—and underappreciated—command of the Allied war effort. Hamilton takes readers inside FDR’s White House Oval Study—his personal command center—and into the meetings where he battled with Churchill about strategy and tactics and overrode the near mutinies of his own generals and secretary of war. 

Time and again, FDR was proven right and his allies and generals were wrong. When the generals wanted to attack the Nazi-fortified coast of France, FDR knew the Allied forces weren’t ready. When Churchill insisted his Far East colonies were loyal and would resist the Japanese, Roosevelt knew it was a fantasy. As Hamilton’s account reaches its climax with the Torch landings in North Africa in late 1942, the tide of war turns in the Allies’ favor and FDR’s genius for psychology and military affairs is clear. This intimate, sweeping look at a great president in history’s greatest conflict is must reading.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

"Franklin D. Roosevelt’s role as commander in chief of the military during World War II has not been covered as much as other aspects of his presidency. Hamilton (senior fellow, McCormack Graduate Sch., Univ. of Massachusetts-Boston; JFK: Reckess Youth) is well qualified to remedy that, showing how FDR worked with individuals and nations. He blasts Winston Churchill’s colonialist values, poor selection of military leaders, and constant meddling in their tactical plans, as well as Douglas MacArthur’s vanity and failure to prepare for a Japanese attack, but shows that FDR appreciated both men as fighters. Hamilton presents FDR as a serious student of world affairs who learned from his six years as assistant secretary of the navy. Unlike most books on Henry Stimson, FDR’s secretary of war, and George C. Marshall, his chief of staff of the army, Hamilton’s work critiques them for their opposition to Operation Torch in French North Africa in 1942, opposition that was near mutiny against the president. Marshall’s disagreement, Hamilton charges, cost him command of the Normandy invasion: FDR brought Adm. William Leahy out of retirement to be chairman of the combined chiefs of staff, putting the Pentagon in its place just as he did the Axis powers. VERDICT This convincingly written and gripping volume is essential for historians, political scientists, and history buffs, for a deeper understanding of the principle of civilian supremacy of the military in the U.S. political system." —Library Journal, STARRED review

"Accomplished biographer Hamilton (Biography: A Brief History) delivers an analysis of President Franklin Roosevelt in the role of Commander-in-Chief through the first two years of WWII. The author follows his subject through 14 pivotal periods of the early war years and demonstrates that F.D.R. frequently trusted his own judgment over the advice of the military professionals who surrounded him. Central to the book and its thesis is the contest of wills between F.D.R. and his group of distinguished military advisors regarding the proposed invasion of North Africa in 1942, which was aggressively opposed by General Marshall and Secretary of War Stimson. This decision almost resulted in a “mutiny” against the President. Events ultimately vindicated the President’s decision and firmly established his talent for grand strategy. Though it’s a weighty tome, and is based extensively on Roosevelt’s own notes, Hamilton keeps a brisk pace throughout to produce what will likely be seen as a definitive volume on this aspect of Roosevelt’s career and essential reading for anyone interested in WWII, the Roosevelt Presidency, and presidential leadership." —Publishers Weekly

"The Mantle of Command is splendid: It’s the memoir Roosevelt didn’t get to write." —New York Times Book Review

"Masterly."

—Wall Street Journal

 "FDR has frequently been underestimated as a military leader, yielding, in the historical imagination, to George Marshall and Winston Churchill, among others. Nigel Hamilton attacks this view with his characteristic verve, portraying a president with the reins of war fully, if often subtly, in his hands. The conventional wisdom will never be the same." —H.W. Brands, author of Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt "Nigel Hamilton’s Mantle of Command is a stirring and noteworthy book about Roosevelt’s crucial role as commander-in-chief during World War II. Hamilton writes with insight, passion, and a great grasp of history. I believe this book will become the standard by which other books about FDR’s role in World War II will be measured." — Carlo D’Este, author of Patton: A Genius for War and Warlord: A Life of Churchill at War, 1874–1945 "This is not the Roosevelt (or Churchill) you'd expect. From the start, an aggressive, in-charge FDR emerges from a wonderful weaving of established scholarship and the fascinating bits and pieces that make history live. Churchill is an inspirational nag, with a busy, unfocused strategic vision. A key entry into the ongoing debate over who made grand strategy in the early war years — Roosevelt or Churchill?" — Warren F. Kimball, author of Forged in War: Roosevelt, Churchill, and the Second World War "Nigel Hamilton in Mantle of Command presents a very different wartime Franklin Delano Roosevelt than the one we are used to seeing. Whether or not one agrees with all his conclusions, Hamilton clearly shows that FDR was an extremely strong and effective commander-in-chief. This volume should go a long way to dispelling popular myths about Roosevelt as a naïve and weak war leader." — Mark Stoler, editor of the George C. Marshall Papers & Professor Emeritus of History, University of Vermont "Nigel Hamilton has written a spirited and thoughtful ‘revisionist’ study of Franklin Delano Roosevelt as commander-in-chief during the first phase of U.S. involvement in the Second World War. Hamilton’s narrative skill brings alive the human dramas, logistic hurdles, and strategic debates to show how FDR’s indispensable drive and forward-looking leadership tamed his own ‘team of rivals’ and set the United States and its Allies on the road to victory over the Axis. The books enlivens the often murky worlds of bureaucratic struggle and military detail to demonstrate how important it was for the United States to ‘get it right’ early in the war and how FDR accomplished this." —Michael Schaller, author of Douglas MacArthur & Regents Professor of History, University of Arizona

Winner of the Whitbread Award for Biography (1981) and the Templer Medal for Best Contribution to Military History (1986) for Monty: The Making of a General, 1887-1942  "In Monty . . . Nigel Hamilton has dissected and examined . . . the character of one of the most singular Englishmen of this century. He has performed the task splendidly: this is Monty, a great general but a perversely difficult man. If there are more warts in the portrait than some would wish, well, Monty had plenty. Many good writers . . . have had a shot at explaining Monty. No one has come as close to the man as Mr. Hamilton." — New York Times Book Review
 "Rich, gripping . . . Easily takes its place beside the best of recent presidential portraits."
— New York Times Book Review on JFK: Reckless Youth

 "The revelations make it sensational in every sense of the word and, on every page, utterly fascinating." — Los Angeles Times Book Review on JFK: Reckless Youth

"Vivid, readable, dramatic . . . The central and authoritative reference on Kennedy's early life."
— Michael Beschloss, Boston Globe on JFK: Reckless Youth  "Riveting, impressively researched, at times shocking . . . A remarkably fresh work that promises to be the fullest, most revealing portrait of Kennedy's personal and political development."
— Publishers Weekly on JFK: Reckless Youth  "Scintillating biography . . . Hamilton's specialty, with a few nods to psychoanalysis, lies not just in telling us what happened but why and how it happened."
— Observer (London) on Bill Clinton: Mastering the Presidency

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s role as commander in chief of the military during World War II has not been covered as much as other aspects of his presidency. Hamilton (senior fellow, McCormack Graduate Sch., Univ. of Massachusetts-Boston; JFK: Reckess Youth) is well qualified to remedy that, showing how FDR worked with individuals and nations. He blasts Winston Churchill’s colonialist values, poor selection of military leaders, and constant meddling in their tactical plans, as well as Douglas MacArthur’s vanity and failure to prepare for a Japanese attack, but shows that FDR appreciated both men as fighters. Hamilton presents FDR as a serious student of world affairs who learned from his six years as assistant secretary of the navy. Unlike most books on Henry Stimson, FDR’s secretary of war, and George C. Marshall, his chief of staff of the army, Hamilton’s work critiques them for their opposition to Operation Torch in French North Africa in 1942, opposition that was near mutiny against the president. Marshall’s disagreement, Hamilton charges, cost him command of the Normandy invasion: FDR brought Adm. William Leahy out of retirement to be chairman of the combined chiefs of staff, putting the Pentagon in its place just as he did the Axis powers. VERDICT This convincingly written and gripping volume is essential for historians, political scientists, and history buffs, for a deeper understanding of the principle of civilian supremacy of the military in the U.S. political system.—Library Journal, STARRED review

L'autore:

NIGEL HAMILTON is a best-selling and award-winning biographer of President John F. Kennedy, General Bernard “Monty” Montgomery, and President Bill Clinton, among other subjects.  He is a senior fellow in the McCormack Graduate School, University of Massachusetts, Boston, and first president of the Biographers International Organization.

 

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Data di pubblicazione: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0547775245
• ISBN 13: 9780547775241
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero edizione: 1
• Numero di pagine: 514