The Savior Generals: How Five Great Commanders Saved Wars That Were Lost - From Ancient Greece to IraqProminent military historian Victor Davis Hanson explores the nature of leadership with his usual depth and vivid prose in The Savior Generals, a set of brilliantly executed pocket biographies of five generals (Themistocles, Belisarius, William Tecumseh Sherman, Matthew Ridgway, and David Petraeus) who single-handedly saved their nations from defeat in war. War is rarely a predictable enterprise-it is a mess of luck, chance, and incalculable variables. Today's sure winner can easily become tomorrow's doomed loser. Sudden, sharp changes in fortune can reverse the course of war. These intractable circumstances are sometimes mastered by leaders of genius-asked at the eleventh hour to save a hopeless conflict, one created by others and frequently unpopular politically and with the public. The savior generals often come from outside the established power structure, employ radical strategies, and flame out quickly. Their careers regularly end in controversy. But their dramatic feats of leadership are vital slices of history-not merely as stirring military narrative, but as lessons on the dynamic nature of consensus, leadership, and destiny. |
Contents
Saving Lost Wars | 1 |
Chapter One Athens Is Burning | 8 |
Chapter Two Byzantium at the Brink | 49 |
Chapter Three Atlanta Is Ours and Fairly Won | 96 |
Chapter Four One Hundred Days in Korea | 140 |
Chapter Five Iraq Is Lost | 190 |
A Rare Breed | 238 |
Acknowledgments | 251 |
| 289 | |
| 297 | |