General Patton: A Soldier's Life.

Hirshson, Stanley.

ISBN 10: 0060009829 / ISBN 13: 9780060009823

Published by HarperCollins, 2002., 2002

About this Item

1st ed. 826p. Maps. Photos. Heavy. Jacket priced. SIGNED & inscribed. Fine/Fine Copy.

Seller Inventory # 4-552

Bibliographic Details

• Title: General Patton: A Soldier's Life.
• Publisher: HarperCollins, 2002.
• Publication Date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0060009829
• ISBN 13: 9780060009823
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st.
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Fine
• Signed: Signed by Author
• Book Type: Book
• Seller catalogs:
  • List 104
  • WORLD WAR II::AMERICAN FORCES

About this title

Synopsis

"War is my work and I know I sound sometimes as though I liked it; perhaps I do -- how can I tell? -- but this war hurts everybody."

-- Patton to Henry J. Taylor, 1945

General George S. Patton, Jr., an inspirational leader and outstanding tactician, has intrigued and confounded his biographers. Now, utilizing untapped archival materials in both the United States and England, government documents, family papers, and oral histories, Stanley P. Hirshson creates the most balanced portrait of Patton ever written. It reveals Patton as a complex soldier capable of brilliant military maneuvers but also of inspiring his troops with fiery speeches that resulted in horrendous acts, such as the massacres of Italian civilians, It explains Patton's belief in a soldier's Valhalla, connects the family's wealth to one of America's bitterest labor strikes, and disputes the usual interpretation of Patton's relief from command of the Third Army.

In investigating this complex man, Hirshson has uncovered surprising material about a series of civilian massacres in Sicily, about the two slapping incidents, about attempts to exploit Patton's diary after his death, and about Patton's relations with top Allied generals. Patton emerges as a soldier of great imagination and courage, and his military campaigns make for edge-of-the-seat reading. All the drama of Patton's life comes alive in this meticulously documented volume.

About the Author

Stanley P. Hirshson was professor of history at Queens College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is the author of biographies of Brigham Young, Gen. William T. Sherman, and Gen. George Patton, and died in 2003.