Members with This Book
Most Helpful Reviews
see all reviews
Liked It “good coverage about how four men made decisions” see full review » see other reviews » |
Newest Reviews
see all reviews-
“This book largely containing arcane minutiae might be of little interest did it not treat richly - with newly uncovered materials - of some of the pivotal dynamics of WWII. The insights that fascinate me the most have something to do with the intriguing notion of how reasonable it was for brilliant, highly motivated "players on the same team" to find themselves OF SEEMING NECESSITY compensating for what they perceive to be each others' weaknesses, obsessions, and ILLUSIONS/DELUSIONS by means of stealth, collusion and duplicity. Of course this speaks pungently to some of our current vaunted efforts to build collaborative learning communities redolent of near total transparency, which initiatives i personally revere. But is it possible we sometimes lose "political battles" because we are acting hopelessly naive?
Fred B wrote this review Saturday, July 3, 2010. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
”“I appreciated getting to know more about Churchill, Roosevelt, Brooke and Marshall, Roberts so called masters and commanders of WWII. However, the book just had too much detail for me and I kept getting bogged down.
Mary v wrote this review Friday, October 9, 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
What the book does well is to show how the competing political views and personalities from England and America had a great influence on decision making. It is almost surprising that the two countries were able to work as well together as they did. It's an interesting read to combine with a book from this era that focuses more on the battles (like Atkinson's books) because you see a bit more of the political wheeling and dealing going on behind the scenes and how the snafus on the battllefield often result from that. But it's not like Roberts blames these four. He seems fairly complimentary of all four who were working against some horrible situations and choices--the pacific theater? The Mediterranean? Turkey? Russia? Where and when to be where? And America was very poorly equipped when the war started and didn't have a lot of materials to use. Also, the book emphasizes how important Russia's front was to our winning the war and how these guys had to deal with STalin after the war was over knowing that he lost many more soldiers than the western powers did (I believe Roberts said almost 5 to 1).
”
Displaying 1-3 of 3
