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In many ways, the course of the World War II depended on the relationships and temperaments of four of the strongest personalities of the 20th century: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the commanders of their armed forces, General Sir Alan Brooke and General George C. Marshall. Andrew Roberts presents a joint biography of all four men in Masters and Commanders. In this definitive analysis, Roberts reconstructs the lively debates of the four principals and other leading figures, and examines key questions about the war. Masters and Commanders dramatically re-creates the disputes and maneuverings through which Allied strategy was forged and reveals the profound impact of personality upon history. Andrew Roberts is the author of A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900. His other books include Napoleon and Wellington, Eminent Churchillians, and Salisbury, which won the Wolfson Prize for History. Roberts''s writing appears regularly in The Wall Street Journal. His website can be found at www.andrew-roberts.net. ''Masterly ... Roberts''s portrait of the relationship between the four men who made Allied strategy through the war years is a triumph of vivid description, telling anecdotes, and informed analysis.'' - Max Hastings, The New York Review of Books
About the author
Andrew Roberts is a biographer and historian whose books include the New York Times bestsellers Churchill: Walking With Destinyand Napoleon: A Life (winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize), Masters and Commanders, The Storm of Warand Salisbury: Victorian Titan(winner of the Wolfson Prize for History), among others. His most recent book, The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III,was published in November 2021. Roberts is a Fellow of the Royal Societies of Literature and the Royal Historical Society, and a Trustee of the International Churchill Society. He is currently Visiting Professor at the Department of War Studies at King's College, London, and the Roger and Martha Mertz Visiting Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
Summary
“Masterly.
. . . Roberts’s portrait of the relationship between the four men who made
Allied strategy through the war years is a triumph of vivid description,
telling anecdotes, and informed analysis." —Max Hastings, The New York Review of Books
An epic joint biography, Masters and Commanders explores the degree to which the course of the Second World War turned on the relationships and temperaments of four of the strongest personalities of the twentieth century: political masters Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt and the commanders of their armed forces, General Sir Alan Brooke and General George C. Marshall.
Each was exceptionally tough-willed and strong-minded, and each was certain that only he knew best how to win the war. Andrew Roberts, "Britain's finest contemporary military historian" (The Economist), traces the mutual suspicion and admiration, the rebuffs and the charm, the often-explosive disagreements and wary reconciliations, and he helps us to appreciate the motives and imperatives of these key leaders as they worked tirelessly in the monumental struggle to destroy Nazism.
