The Mask of Command

The author asserts that generalship is a cultural activity as well as an exercise in power or military skill and that it provides great insights into particular eras or places

By the author of The Face of Battle, this is a study of the transformation of military leadership in the context of heroism in its broadest sense. Keegan uses as examples four commanders whose attitudes, styles and military philosophies differed drastically: Alexander the Great, "heroic leader as conquerer"; Wellington as "anti-heroic leader under constitutional monarchy"; U. S. Grant as "consciously unheroic"; and Adolf Hitler as "fake heroic." These four long chapters comprise a new way of explaining the political-military policies and actions of four major conductors of war across 2000 years of Western history. Taken as a whole, the sections are building-blocks leading up to Keegan's masterful closing argument warning that in the nuclear age heroic leadership of any style would lead to the destruction of civilization. The 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, notes the author, was conducted "in a strictly post-heroic manner," and offers hope that future nuclear crises may be resolved "as rationally and harmlessly." Photos. 40,000 first printing; BOMC and QPBC featured alternates.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Keegan ( The Face of Battle, Six Armies in Normandy) turns his attention to command. He interprets generalship as manifesting a cultural urge to conquer. Its classical example is the heroic warrior, personified by Alexander the Great, who inextricably merged identity with performance. Subsequently, the bureaucratic state, democracy, technology, etc., subsumed the heroic leader. The 20th-century re-evoked the heroic principle, but it manifested itself in the false heroism of an Adolf Hitler. Keegan concludes by appealing for post-heroic leaders who will forswear conflict. Though Keegan's structure and models are open to challenge, this provocative book nevertheless deserves reading by any student of military affairs.Dennis Showalter, Colorado Coll., Colorado Springs
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.