Although I learned quite a few interesting facts about George Marshall and about the relationships among the three generals featured, this was somehow not a terribly revealing look at either Douglas MacArthur or George Patton for me, at least partly because I read a good deal about the two generals for personal reasons: I spent much of my working life in East Asia, and particularly in Korea and my father had been a tank mechanic in Patton's Third Army--the only stories about World War II he ever told us were about Patton. ( )

An unabashed worship of three exceptional leaders. They were smart and tough, and they led thousands to their deaths, but won. Interesting that Ike is not included here. Might we assume that the author is not a fan? ( )

A very readable biography of Marshall, Patton, and MacArthur. I appreciated the overview but it has to move awfully quickly to cover all that ground. It relies largely on secondary sources and memoirs, which is fine as far as it goes. Students of history will find reason to quibble with some of the details (for example, the amphibious landing employed by the U.S. during the drive to Messina was a debacle in Rick Atkinson's excellently researched _An Army at Dawn_, whereas Groom described the amphibious landings as contributing constructively to Patton's drive) and the tone tends to be favorable towards the subjects.

In other words, it doesn't contribute anything original to the literature that I could see, but it is a well-written and highly readable introduction to the epic careers of these three men. ( )

I first saw this book mentioned in a mailed advertisement. I started doing some research. Winston Groom's past writing has received some high praise. A couple of friends thought his writing was very good. I ultimately received this book as a Christmas gift and just finished reading it.

The book focuses on the biographies of Marshall, MacArthur and Patton.

It was not clearly presented: Why just these three generals? Patton and MacArthur were the headline catchers and the inspiring combat leaders of WWII. Marshall was the top general responsible for the entire land warfare direction. I probably could have made the case that Ike should have been included. But, this does not take away from the book's content.

I have a number of biographies on US generals from WWII. Much of the basic profile information on these generals is already well known. Eventually biographical content on high profile generals starts to get repeated between books. However, Groom's book kept my attention. He did a great job at contrasting each general's experiences during various time periods. His writing style made reading flow at a good pace.

Each general served at a different levels in the command structure so direct comparison of them during WWII was strained. I found the comparison of their experiences before/during WWI and after up to the start of WWII very illuminating. When WWII approached, the experiences of each general diverged somewhat with comparisons and relationships between the three taking more independent paths.

I thought Patton's background filled the most pages of the three generals. MacArthur next. Then Marshall. Fairly consistent with the level of flamboyance demonstrated by each man. In my opinion, Marshall could have/should have been weighted more given his role as the senior Army officer during WWII. On the war effort in general, I feel that he actually had the biggest impact of the three.

I did start to get curious about the content on Patton. There were a number of Patton's statements in the book that seemed verbatim from the 1970 movie, Patton. Were the original statements by Patton and others used in the movie and in this book? Or were embellished statements from the movie just repeated in this book? Not clear. Other biographies seem to use slight variations of Patton's statements. I probably need to review the Reference Notes at the back of the book to seek clarification.

All in all, this was an excellent book. Their WWI experiences and parallels between the three men was the best section. I found this book a nice compliment to other books I own and would encourage fellow military biography readers to check it out. ( )