The Savior Generals, Victor Davis Hanson

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

Are wars won by the largest armies? The most advanced technology? The toughest troops? All play a role--but in the history of warfare, we repeatedly find that at certain critical moments, the leadership of a single individual can still determine the outcome.

The Savior Generals gives us the story of five wars that were all but lost and the five commanders who transformed defeat into victory: Themistocles of Athens, who stunned the mighty Persians at Salamis; Belisarius, who held the frontier of Byzantium; William T. Sherman, whose victory at Atlanta in 1864 saved Abraham Lincoln's presidency; Matthew Ridgway, who revived a shaken army in Korea; and in our own century, David Petraeus, who led the controversial "surge" to prevent Iraq from falling into chaos. Their dramatic feats are unforgettable moments of history--lessons in the dynamic nature of war, courage, and leadership.

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"Mr. Hanson's fluency with a broad range of historical epochs, which has made him one of his generation's most notable historians, is on full display in The Savior Generals. Although his portraits come from the military realm—ranging from the classical period to the current day—they illustrate eternal verities that arise in all types of endeavor, and they capture attributes associated with master strategists in all walks of life, such as a disregard for conventional wisdom and an intuitive grasp of the big picture"—The Wall Street Journal

"The Savior Generals extends the profound study of warfare that has made Victor Davis Hanson our most relevant military historian. Compact, sharply reasoned, and cleanly written, this fine work will have an outsized impact as it reminds us that, despite startling technological advances, wars are still won or lost by flesh-and-blood leadership"—Ralph Peters, author of "Cain at Gettysburg" and "Lines of Fire"