Always colorful, always controversial, Douglas MacArthur is one of the dominant characters in American military history. To his admirers, he was the greatest American soldier; to his critics, he was a five-star fake. With unprecedented access to official military records, reports, correspondence and diaries, Geoffrey Perret's groundbreaking biography reveals for the first time a complete and accurate account of MacArthur's tumultuous career, including:...

Traces the career and achievements of the military leader from his prestigious early years through his command in Afghanistan and nomination as director of the CIA, exploring his contributions to the war and counterterrorism efforts.

"A brilliantly vibrant and compulsively readable one-volume life of one of the giants of the twentieth century." —Michael Beschloss

"A clear-eyed, grand-scale biography. . . . [Eisenhower] provides a vivid lesson in leadership at just the moment when leadership is of such paramount importance to the nation and the world."—David McCullough

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Shortly after losing all of his wealth in a terrible 1884 swindle, Ulysses S. Grant learned he had terminal throat and mouth cancer. Destitute and dying, Grant began to write his memoirs to save his family from permanent financial ruin. As Grant continued his work, suffering increasing pain, the American public became aware of this race between Grant's writing and his fatal illness. Twenty years after his respectful and magnanimous demeanor toward...

Is it possible that the riddle of America's military failure in Vietnam has a one-word, one-man answer? Unless and until we understand General William Westmoreland, we will never understand what went wrong in Vietnam. An Eagle Scout at fifteen, First Captain of his West Point class, Westmoreland fought in two wars and became Superintendent at West Point. Then he was chosen to lead the war effort in Vietnam for four crucial years. He proved a disaster....

"We were as brothers," William Tecumseh Sherman said, describing his relationship with Ulysses S. Grant. They were incontestably two of the most important figures in the Civil War, but until now there has been no book about their victorious partnership and the deep friendship that made it possible. Heeding the call to save the Union, each struggled past political hurdles to join the war effort. Taking each other's measure at the Battle of Shiloh,...

Author of the best-seller FDR, Jean Edward Smith is a master of the presidential biography. Setting his sights on Dwight D. Eisenhower, Smith delivers a rich account of Eisenhower's life using previously untapped primary sources. From the military service in WWII that launched his career to the shrewd political decisions that kept America out of wars with the Soviet Union and China, Smith reveals a man who never faltered in his dedication to serving...