“An excellent, vividly written” (The Washington Post) account of leadership in wartime that explores how four great democratic statesmen—Abraham Lincoln, Georges Clemenceau, Winston Churchill, and David Ben-Gurion—worked with the military leaders who served them during warfare. The relationship between military leaders and political leaders has always been a complicated one, especially in times of war. When the chips are down, who should run the show—the politicians or the generals? In Supreme Command, Eliot A. Cohen expertly argues that great statesmen do not turn their wars over to their generals, and then stay out of their way. Great statesmen make better generals of their generals. They question and drive their military men, and at key times they overrule their advice. The generals may think they know how to win, but the statesmen are the ones who see the big picture. Abraham Lincoln, Georges Clemenceau, Winston Churchill, and David Ben-Gurion led four very different kinds of democracy, under the most difficult circumstances imaginable. They came from four very different backgrounds—backwoods lawyer, dueling French doctor, rogue aristocrat, and impoverished Jewish socialist. Yet they faced similar challenges. Each exhibited mastery of detail and fascination with technology. All four were great learners, who studied war as if it were their own profession, and in many ways mastered it as well as did their generals. All found themselves locked in conflict with military men. All four triumphed. The powerful lessons of this “brilliant” (National Review) book will touch and inspire anyone who faces intense adversity and is the perfect gift for history buffs of all backgrounds.

This story, published thirty years ago, remains extremely relevant to this day in that the author envisioned all problems related to the thankless task of nation-building in a multiethnic and multicultural Yugoslavia.

A captivating and fanatically thorough reevaluation of Marshall's life and times.

This is a collection of essays about major aspects of the "English Revolution" of the mid-seventeenth century. It examines how it was fought (soldiers), how it was defended and argued over (writers), and how it was shaped and how it failed (statesmen). The essays are written by both established and younger scholars of the period in honor of Austyn Woolrych, founding Professor of History at the University of Lancaster and the author of many influential books and articles.