The Savior Generals, Victor Davis Hanson
The Savior Generals, Victor Davis Hanson
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The Savior Generals
How Five Great Commanders Saved Wars That Were Lost - From Ancient Greece to Iraq

Author: Victor Davis Hanson

Narrator: Bob Souer

Unabridged: 10 hr 24 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 09/24/2019

Synopsis

Stirring portraits of five commanders whose dynamic leadership changed the course of war and history by prominent military historian Victor Davis Hanson.

Prominent military historian Victor Davis Hanson explores the nature of leadership with his usual depth and vivid prose in The Savior Generals, a set of brilliantly executed pocket biographies of five generals (Themistocles, Belisarius, William Tecumseh Sherman, Matthew Ridgway, and David Petraeus) who single-handedly saved their nations from defeat in war. War is rarely a predictable enterprise—it is a mess of luck, chance, and incalculable variables. Today's sure winner can easily become tomorrow's doomed loser. Sudden, sharp changes in fortune can reverse the course of war.

These intractable circumstances are sometimes mastered by leaders of genius—asked at the eleventh hour to save a hopeless conflict, one created by others and frequently unpopular politically and with the public. The savior generals often come from outside the established power structure, employ radical strategies, and flame out quickly. Their careers regularly end in controversy. But their dramatic feats of leadership are vital slices of history—not merely as stirring military narrative, but as lessons on the dynamic nature of consensus, leadership, and destiny.

About Victor Davis Hanson

Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow in military history at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and a professor emeritus of classics at California State University, Fresno. He is the author of more than two dozen books, ranging in topics from ancient Greece to modern America, including The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won. He lives in Selma, California.

Reviews

Goodreads review by John on February 02, 2017

Most interesting to me are two chapters, the ones about Civil War Gen. Sherman and Korean War Gen. Ridgway. Though I was familiar with the story of Sherman’s capture of Atlanta and his “March to the Sea,” I hadn’t realized how these events played such a pivotal role in determining the war’s outcome.......more

Goodreads review by Matthew on February 05, 2017

It's important not to let an important historical argument be overshadowed by an authors'/readers' political identity or sensitivity. Savior Generals examines the role of human agency in the context of consensual societies throughout human military history. I think Dr. Hanson generally succeeds in h......more

Goodreads review by Nathan on December 22, 2019

There is one common thread, one that the author chooses not to recognize, in all of these various stories of savior generals who were able to salvage wars that were thought of as lost.  In all of these cases, we are dealing with military situations that were lost or at least imperiled in a political......more

Goodreads review by Christopher on July 22, 2024

A historical survey with an interesting premise whose examples don't totally fit. About 4/5 of the way through Hansons' 2013 "The Savior Generals" he admits that he didn't title it "The Victorious Generals" -- which seems odd given the book seels itself as being stories of commanders who "saved wars......more

Goodreads review by Carol Bakker on April 19, 2022

I got this book specifically to read about General Matthew Ridgway's turnaround of the Korean War. The five generals: 1. Themistocles at Salamis 2. Favius Belisarius fighting for Byzantium 3. William Tecumseh Sherman in Georgia 4. Matthew Ridgway's 100 days in Korea 6. David Petraeus and the Surge in Ira......more

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