The Mask of Command

This study of generalship compares four commanders and the kinds of authority they practiced: Alexander the Great as a heroic leader who fought in sight of his men; the Duke of Wellington as an anti-heroic professional of the gunpowder age; Ulysses S. Grant as an unheroic manager of industrial war; and Adolf Hitler as a false heroic commander who directed from bunkers. Keegan links each style to technology, politics, and the distance between leader and soldier. The book is a comparative essay on military command, not a set of full biographies.

Bound in title blocked dark-blue cloth. Plain slipcase.