GREAT BRITAIN’S brilliant statesman, Foreign Secretary during the early years of the war, tells the story of the twenty-five years from 1892 to 1916 inclusive—an account of the most momentous period in modern history by the man who was for a longer time continuously in charge of Foreign Affairs than any other minister in the world. Lord Grey enters deeply into British-American relations—revealing for the first time many important transactions hitherto unknown to the public—and has much to say of Theodore Roosevelt, Walter Hines Page and Colonel House, giving us some Roosevelt letters never before published. He also gives the text of the confidential memorandum presented to him by Colonel House which stated the peace terms President Wilson would attempt to secure. The outstanding work of the year, supplementing in many interesting ways “The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page.” Richly illustrated throughout with photographs.

GREAT BRITAIN’S brilliant statesman, Foreign Secretary during the early years of the war, tells the story of the twenty-five years from 1892 to 1916 inclusive—an account of the most momentous period in modern history by the man who was for a longer time continuously in charge of Foreign Affairs than any other minister in the world. Lord Grey enters deeply into British-American relations—revealing for the first time many important transactions hitherto unknown to the public—and has much to say of Theodore Roosevelt, Walter Hines Page and Colonel House, giving us some Roosevelt letters never before published. He also gives the text of the confidential memorandum presented to him by Colonel House which stated the peace terms President Wilson would attempt to secure. The outstanding work of the year, supplementing in many interesting ways “The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page.” Richly illustrated throughout with photographs.

'The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our life-time.' The words of Sir Edward Grey, looking out from the windows of the Foreign Office at the end of August 1914, are amongst the most famous in European history, and encapsulate the impending end of the nineteenth-century world. The man who spoke them was Britain's longest-ever serving Foreign Secretary (in a single span of office) and one of the great figures of late Victorian and Edwardian Britain. Statesman of Europe describes the three decades before the First World War through the prism of his biography, which is based almost entirely on archival sources and presents a detailed account of the main domestic and international events, and of the main personalities of the era. In particular, it presents a fresh understanding of the approach to war in the years and months before its outbreak, and Grey's role in the unfolding of events. Yet Grey's life was not all public affairs, momentous as those were. He disliked being in London, much preferring country life at Fallodon, his family estate in Northumberland, and displayed none of the ambition of his contemporaries (or successors). He attended assiduously to his duties as director of the Great North Eastern Railway, one of the transformative enterprises in industry and communications of the period, and wanted to spend as much time as he could fishing. Apart from his memoirs, the only book he wrote was called The Charm of Birds. This hinterland gave quality to his judgements, and made his character attractive to his contemporaries. This important book is the definitive biography of one of the pivotal figures in European diplomacy, and a magnificent portrait of an age.

The extraordinary career of General George C. Marshall—America’s most distinguished soldier–statesman since George Washington—whose selfless leadership and moral character influenced the course of two world wars and helped define the American century “I’ve read several biographies of Marshall, but I think [David] Roll’s may be the best of the bunch.”—Thomas E. Ricks, New York Times Book Review • “Powerful.”—The Wall Street Journal • “Enthralling.”—Andrew Roberts • “Important.”—William I. Hitchcock • “Majestic.”—Susan Page • “Engrossing.”—Andrew J. Bacevich • “Judicious.”—Walter Isaacson • “Definitive.”—Kirkus Winston Churchill called him World War II's "organizer of victory." Harry Truman said he was "the greatest military man that this country ever produced." Today, in our era of failed leadership, few lives are more worthy of renewed examination than Marshall and his fifty years of loyal service to the defense of his nation and its values. Even as a young officer Marshall was heralded as a genius, a reputation that grew when in WWI he planned and executed a nighttime movement of more than a half million troops from one battlefield to another that led to the armistice. Between the wars he helped modernize combat training and re-staffed the U.S. Army's officer corps with the men who would lead in the next decades. But as WWII loomed, it was the role of army chief of staff in which Marshall's intellect and backbone were put to the test, when his blind commitment to duty would run up against the realities of Washington politics. Long seen as a stoic, almost statuesque figure, he emerges in these pages as a man both remarkable and human thanks to newly discovered sources. Set against the backdrop of five major conflicts—two world wars, Palestine, Korea, and the Cold War—Marshall's education in military, diplomatic, and political power, replete with their nuances and ambiguities, runs parallel with America's emergence as a global superpower. The result is a defining account of one of our most consequential leaders.

In 1905, British Foreign Secretary Edward Grey agreed to speak secretly with his French counterparts about sending a British expeditionary force to France in the event of a German attack. Neither Parliament nor the rest of the Cabinet was informed. The Hidden Perspective takes readers back to these tense years leading up to World War I and re-creates the stormy Cabinet meetings in the fall of 1911 when the details of the military conversations were finally revealed. Using contemporary historical documents, David Owen, himself a former foreign secretary, shows how the foreign office’s underlying belief in Britain’s moral obligation to send troops to the Continent influenced political decision-making and helped create the impression that war was inevitable. Had Britain’s diplomatic and naval strategy been handled more skillfully during these years, Owen contends, the carnage of World War I might have been prevented altogether.

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