General of the Army: George C. Marshall, Soldier and Statesman [Paperback]

Ed Cray (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1991

This biography of George C. Marshall, one of the most powerful men of his time, covers his life as Chief of Staff of the US army during World War II and his role later as peacemaker and architect of the European Recovery Plan (only known to others as the Marshall Plan).

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Marshall raised an army of nearly seven million as FDR's wartime chief of staff, shaped the postwar world as secretary of state and secretary of defense under Truman, and served selflessly with eight other presidents. "In this well-balanced biography, Marshall emerges as a person of integrity, nobility and greatness, both of vision and of character," said PW. Photos.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

General of the Army enhances our ability to perceive both the man and his monumental reputation....Cray's biography commends itself not least because he does not paper over Marshall's errors. (Russell F. Weigley The New York Times Book Review )

General of the Army enhances our ability to perceive both the man and his monumental reputation....Cray's biography commends itself not least because he does not paper over Marshall's errors. (Russell F. Weigley The New York Times Book Review )

Cray's biography ...tells you everything you want to know about Marshall....[It] will serve as the standard 'popular' biography and reference. (Clay Blair, Jr. Chicago Sun-Times )

The comprehensive, masterful biography that Marshall deserves....Cray gives us insight into the private man as well as an understanding of his crucial role in an extraordinary period in world history. (Digby Diehl Playboy )

Impressively researched, delightfully written, and judiciously argued, General of the Army is the best one-volume life of Marshall to date. It deserves to be read by anyone interested in recent American history. (Robert Dallek )

Impressively researched, delightfully written, and judiciously argued, General of the Army is the best one-volume life of Marshall to date. It deserves to be read by anyone interested in recent American history. (Robert Dallek ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 847 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone Books; 1 edition (May 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671741241
• ISBN-13: 978-0671741242
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #309,574 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fine example of how biography can inform and inspire, January 7, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: General of the Army: George C. Marshall, Soldier and Statesman (Paperback)

I purchased this book following a visit to the Marshall Museum at VMI. I opened it this past autumn and began to read. As some other reviewers have indicated, 700+ pages is a daunting read. I am very glad that I sat down to read it. I didn't know very much about Marshall prior to my visit to VMI. I knew about the European Recovery Program that bore his name; I knew about his remaking of the Infantry School, and his elimination of the seniority system in promotions. That's about it.

This book is far more than a biography; it's an excellent study of the make-over of the US Army's personnel and educational system, under Marshall's guidance at the Infantry School. It's a study of the interplay between Churchill and Roosevelt. It's a study in the subbordination of the military to civil rule in America. It's a fine summary of "how we lost China," as if anything could have saved the Nationalists from their own venality and ineptitude.

It's a study in how a man of personal fortitude, rectitude, and character made such a contribution in service to his nation. We are blessed to have such figures on occasion in American life. Marshall goes into my personal list of heroes in American public-life alongside George Washington, George Mason, and Robert E. Lee.

This book is excellent in every way. The prose is well-written, and the compelling narrative keeps things moving along at a brisk pace.

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Character Counts, July 7, 2006

By 

T. J. Graczewski "tgraczewski" (Burlingame, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: General of the Army: George C. Marshall, Soldier and Statesman (Paperback)

George Marshall is arguably the greatest man of what has come to be known as the Greatest Generation. Only George Washington commanded a similar level of veneration and awe from his contemporaries as Marshall. And, like Washington, Marshall was revered mostly for his irreproachable integrity and honor.

In this solid, single volume life of the celebrated Army Chief of Staff, Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense, Ed Cray captures the essence of a man who was at once Olympian, yet, in a sense, quite common and whose special qualities should have been, in an ideal society, unexceptional. Marshall became a legend by being a world-class manager (one might even say a highly skilled bureaucrat) and earning a reputation for incorruptibility and almost unnatural selflessness. He was a larger-than-life figure who got that way through hard work and honesty, rather than uncommon genius or death-defying battlefield heroics. That has been Marshall's reputation since his lifetime, and Cray's biography generally endorses that image.

But this is no hagiography. As Cray tells the story, Marshall was, in fact, deeply ambitious; the prospect of being passed over for Chief of Staff drove the future five-star general to fits of despair and he fretted over his slow career advancement during the 1920s and 1930s. Moreover, Cray argues that Marshall didn't shy away from using connections and influence to advance his own cause and engaging in self-promotion when necessary, especially early on his career. In one memorable anecdote, Cray writes how a young Marshall literally elbowed his way into the Oval Office to talk President McKinley into giving him a shot at taking the Army Officer's commission test (it worked and Marshall passed). Any notion that Marshall simply worked hard, kept his head down and let the chips fall where they may has to be rejected after reading Cray's biography.

Not surprisingly, Cray devotes a great deal of focus to Marshall's role in the Second World War. He stresses Marshall's unswerving commitment to a few core strategic principles and his epic battles with some of the biggest egos of the 20th century. First, he steadfastly promoted the maximization of industrial production in the US and the careful allocation of resources based the key objectives being sought (much needed amphibious landing craft - LSTs - played an unusually critical role). Second, from the earliest days of the war Marshall maintained a steady focus on a "Europe-first" approach to strategy and a landing in France as the means to winning the war, which brought him into frequent clashes with Admiral King, General MacArthur, overall US public opinion, and, last but not least, Winston Churchill and his penchant for operations in the Eastern Mediterranean and the "soft underbelly" of Nazi Germany. Finally, Cray describes Marshall as an unapologetic defender of his commanders in Europe - especially Eisenhower - against the badmouthing and operational encroachment of the British.

Cray eloquently and accurately sums up George Marshall's life this way: "[he] exemplified in his lifetime all that was America's best - its sense of mission, of responsibility, of integrity, even nobility." Indeed. It's a shame that there aren't more like him.

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Our Last Great American -- But For How Long ?, July 18, 2002

By 

J. Reynolds (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: General of the Army: George C. Marshall, Soldier and Statesman (Paperback)

This is a fine companion piece to Leonard Mosley's "Marshall: Hero For Our Times." Together, the two volumes provide a managable portrait of a man who conceivably can be considered the most influential American of the 20th Century. Forrest Pogue's volumes are far more comprehensive, though not from a human-interest standpoint. Cray's and Mosley's works explore Marshall's more sensitive facets.

Marshall's towering integrity (he wrote no memoirs because he wanted no one profiting from them) has kept him in history's shadow, though he wasn't exactly cloaked in anonymity during WWII (since he reported to Roosevelt, and gave orders to MacArthur and Eisenhower). I hope more young people will read about him, and emulate his character.

[H]is name was placed upon one of the largest public assistance programs in history, the European Reconstruction Plan.