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Title: General Patton : A Soldier's Life by Stanley Hirshson ISBN: 0-06-000982-9 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 06 August, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $34.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 2.6 (15 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: I liked it very much
Comment: I really enjoyed reading this work. I thought the style was very readable and the of course the subject matter was very interesting.
The other reviewers of this work dislike the fact that Hirshson blames Patton's speeches for the atrocities in Italy. Agreed the assertion is silly but it is clearly opinion. The author also clearly thinks that the general was too dismissive of academcs and reporters etc.
All in all I think it is well worth the read. As with any work this ones shows the reader much about the author in addition to the subject. I learned much about WWII and WWI. I found the Tank/Calvary intellectual battle that went on throughout Patton's career very interesting.
I would recomend the book. I would also note that the author is not a "Blood and Guts" kinda guy.
Rating: 1
Summary: Revisionist History
Comment: Professor Hirshson spent eleven years writing this thinly veiled character assassination of a great field commander. Hirshson makes the wild claim that Patton's fiery speeches directly resulted in atrocities in the Italian campaign. This is pure speculation and impossible to support given the other well documented instances of spontaneous atrocities on the battlefield by the allies, in particular the British, Canadians and Russians. Furthermore, the author describes a civilian riot put down by allied fire as an atrocity. Hirshson also liberally quotes from sources with known animosity toward Patton. Wood, Devers, etc. were self-serving in their comments and Hughes was the worst of the lot. The most disappointing aspect of this book is what's missing. I had expected that Hirshson, as a biographer of General W.T. Sherman, would have spent some time drawing an analogy between their careers al la Victor Davis Hanson's book The Soul of Battle. Sherman and Patton were both great generals who cut wide swaths through the enemy with their armies. Both men were considered crazy by many of their peers. Both men's careers were jeopardized because of political naivete. In summary, this book is an hysterical portrayal of Patton and should be read only after more balanced accounts.
Rating: 1
Summary: A Disgrace to the Profession of Historian
Comment: Quite frankly, this is a dreadful book. It begins with an unbelievably self-serving and pompous introduction, in which the author strives to awe the reader with his credentials and the extent of his research, which sound most impressive, then proceeds to create a "biography" of dismaying shallowness and superficiality. While Hirshson repeatedly empahsizes the "freshness" and "newness" of his book, in truth the text lacks the personal insights and details of Ladislas Farago's "Patton: Ordeal and Triumph," while at the same time falling far short of the military analysis--both in the area of strategy and tactics as well as the realities of military life--that are the hallmarks of Carlo D'Este's "Patton: A Genius for War." Both are immeasurably superior to Hirschson's work. The reader is left with the distinct impression that the only times Hirschson went to any great lengths to analyze and interpret the wealth of material he allegedly accessed were in those passages where he sought to portray Patton as a proto-fascist or as the instigator of wartime atrocities. At the same time, some of the most significant events in Patton's career, particularly in his service in the ETO, are either given short shrift or ignored altogether by Hirschson. In doing so he has done a great disservice to the profession of historian. Equally disturbing is his prediliction for giving credence and lending authority to the military opinions of officers who never served at the command level that Patton did, but who felt themselves "qualified" to pass judgment on Patton's fitness for command and the decisions he made as commander of the Seventh and later Third Armies. Hirschson also makes a great song-and-dance over Patton's dismissal from command of the Fifteenth Army, building a myth that Patton's dismissal has been fraudulently presented to the American public as having been done in response to his anti-Soviet sentiments rather than his refusal to comply with Allied de-Nazification decrees. ... The [money] that would be spent on this book would be better spent on Farago and/or D'Este.
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Title: Eisenhower: A Soldier's Life by Carlo D'Este, Carlo d Este ISBN: 0805056866 Publisher: Henry Holt & Company, Inc. Pub. Date: 04 June, 2002 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: War As I Knew It by George S. Patton, Rick Atkinson ISBN: 0395735297 Publisher: Mariner Books Pub. Date: 08 May, 1995 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: Patton : Genius for War, A by Carlo D'Este ISBN: 0060927623 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 06 November, 1996 List Price(USD): $21.00 |
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Title: An Army at Dawn: The War in Africa, 1942-1943, Volume One of the Liberation Trilogy by Rick Atkinson ISBN: 0805062882 Publisher: Henry Holt & Company, Inc. Pub. Date: 02 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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Title: The Last Mission: The Secret History of World War II's Final Battle by Jim Smith, Malcolm McConnell ISBN: 0767907787 Publisher: Broadway Pub. Date: 13 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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