The Mask of Command

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Overview

John Keegan asks us to consider questions that are seldom asked: 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.

A wide-ranging ...

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Overview

John Keegan asks us to consider questions that are seldom asked: 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.

A wide-ranging overview of the evolving face of leadership, focusing on four paradigmatic commanders: Alexander (hero), Wellington (anti-hero), Grant (uheroic hero), and Hitler (false hero).

Editorial Reviews

John Gross
Each section can indeed be read simply ''for the story.'' For a start, Mr. Keegan knows how to bring fighting alive on the page. . . He also has a sure eye for the incident or quotation that conveys a man's style. . . . Unlike the common run of military history, ''The Mask of Command'' is marked by great intellectual liveliness. -- New York Times
Publishers Weekly
By the author of The Face of Battle, this is a study of the transformation of military leadership in the context of heroism in its broadest sense. Keegan uses as examples four commanders whose attitudes, styles and military philosophies differed drastically: Alexander the Great, ``heroic leader as conquerer''; Wellington as ``anti-heroic leader under constitutional monarchy''; U. S. Grant as ``consciously unheroic''; and Adolf Hitler as ``fake heroic.'' These four long chapters comprise a new way of explaining the political-military policies and actions of four major conductors of war across 2000 years of Western history. Taken as a whole, the sections are building-blocks leading up to Keegan's masterful closing argument warning that in the nuclear age heroic leadership of any style would lead to the destruction of civilization. The 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, notes the author, was conducted ``in a strictly post-heroic manner,'' and offers hope that future nuclear crises may be resolved ``as rationally and harmlessly.'' Photos. 40,000 first printing; BOMC and QPBC featured alternates. (November 11)
More Reviews (1) Fewer Reviews
Library Journal
Keegan ( The Face of Battle, Six Armies in Normandy) turns his attention to command. He interprets generalship as manifesting a cultural urge to conquer. Its classical example is the heroic warrior, personified by Alexander the Great, who inextricably merged identity with performance. Subsequently, the bureaucratic state, democracy, technology, etc., subsumed the heroic leader. The 20th-century re-evoked the heroic principle, but it manifested itself in the false heroism of an Adolf Hitler. Keegan concludes by appealing for post-heroic leaders who will forswear conflict. Though Keegan's structure and models are open to challenge, this provocative book nevertheless deserves reading by any student of military affairs.Dennis Showalter, Colorado Coll., Colorado Springs

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780140114065
  • Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
  • Publication date: 10/28/1988
  • Edition description: REPRINT
  • Pages: 400
  • Sales rank: 241,460
  • Product dimensions: 5.18 (w) x 7.78 (h) x 0.87 (d)

Meet the Author

John Keegan, one of the most distinguished contemporary military historians, was for many years Senior Lecturer at Sandhurst, the British Royal Military Academy, and Defense Editor of the London Daily Telegraph. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Keegan is the author of numerous books including The Face of Battle, The Mask of Command, The Price of Admiralty, Six Armies in Normandy, and The Second World War (all available from Penguin).

Table of Contents

Introduction: Pre-Heroic Leadership
1. Alexander the Great and Heroic Leadership
Alexander: the Father of the Man The Achievement The Kingdom of Macedon The Macedonian Army Alexander's Staff Alexander and his Soldiers Ceremony and Theatre Alexander's Oratory Alexander on the Battlefield Alexander and the Mask of Command
2. Wellington: The Anti-Hero
Wellington the Man Wellington and Western Military Society Wellington's Army Wellington's Staff Wellington's Routine Wellington and the Presentation of Self Wellington in Battle Observation and Sensation
3. Grant and Unheroic Leadership
Grant and the Progress of War The Professional Career of U.S. Grant Grant's Army Grant's Staff Grant on Campaign Grant the Fighter Grant and American Democracy
4. False Heroic: Hitler as Supreme Commander
War and Hitler's World The War Hitler Made Hitler's Soldiers Hitler's Headquarters Hitler in Command Hitler and the Theatre of Leadership
Conclusion: Post-Heroic: Command in the Nuclear World
The Imperative of Kinship The Imperative of Prescription The Imperative of Sanction The Imperative of Action The Imperative of Example The Validation of Nuclear Authority Select Bibliography Index

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