The Mask of Command: Alexander the Great, Wellington, Ulysses S. Grant, Hitler, and the Nature of Leadership

by John Keegan

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780140114065
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	10/04/1988
Edition description:	REPRINT
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Sir John Desmond Patrick Keegan (1934–2012), was one of the most distinguished contemporary military historians and was for many years the senior lecturer at Sandhurst (the British Royal Military Academy) and the defense editor of the Daily Telegraph (London). Keegan was 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, and was a fellow at the Royal Society of Literature.

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

What People are Saying About This

Orit Gadia

It's fascinating to see how leaders across time share certain traits. For example, in each case Keegan writes about, the great leaders use technology and allow a different type of warfare to emerge. It's a great analogy for business. (Orit Gadiesh, chairwoman of consultant giant Bain & Co.)

Editorial Reviews

The best military historian of our generation.” –Tom Clancy
 
“A brilliant treatise on the essence of military leadership.” –The Philadelphia Inquirer
 
“Fascinating and enlightening… marked by great intellectual liveliness… Mr. Keegan knows how to bring fighting alive on the page.” –The New York Times

From the Publisher

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

John Gross