George C Marshall Education Of A General 1880 1939

Born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, George Catlett Marshall (1880-1959) attended the Virginia Military Institute and was named VMI’s First Captain in his senior year, because of his character and sense of duty more than scholastic achievement. In 1902, while a second lieutenant, Marshall married Elizabeth Carter Coles. During World War I, Marshall demonstrated his superior skill for organization and leadership on the staff of General John J. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force in France. Between World Wars I and II, Marshall served as Pershing’s aide in Washington, DC, with troops in China, as an instructor at Fort Benning, Georgia, and at other posts throughout the United States. Marshall married Katherine Boyce Tupper Brown in 1930 after the death of his first wife in 1927. He commanded the Vancouver Barracks in Vancouver, Washington between 1936 and 1938 and was appointed Army Chief of Staff by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on September 1, 1939. “Pogue and Harrison show admirably how Marshall’s early life prepared him for his later responsibilities — his beginning as a second lieutenant in the Philippines, his service on Pershing’s staff in the First World War, three years in China in the Twenties, his exceptionally influential term at the Infantry Training School at Fort Benning, a period organizing CCC camps..., a time in exile when MacArthur sent him to the Illinois National Guard, thereby, as Marshall thought, ending his career, until Pershing’s insistent pressure brought him back to Washington and Harry Hopkins, impressed by his cool efficiency, urged him on Roosevelt. Education of a General is carefully researched, well composed and judiciously written. The portrait of Marshall is sympathetic but by no means worshipful.” — Arthur Schlesinger Jr., New York Review of Books “A highly readable and thoroughly satisfactory biography that provides as full and definitive an account of the general’s career to 1939 as is likely to appear for a long time... The portrait that emerges from these pages is clearly that of an outstanding officer in both staff and command, with wide experience in a variety of posts and a record for performing the tasks assigned to him superlatively well... an outstanding work of scholarship and a definitive record of George Marshall’s early years.” — Louis Morton, The Journal of Modern History “This [book] will be interesting to the professional historian for its insights into the early career of a great soldier, for much new material on the development of the military profession in the first half of the twentieth century, and also for its methodology... No effort was spared to make the work truly ‘definitive’... a well- written volume that is, and will likely remain, the best thing on Marshall’s formative year.” — Harry L. Coles, The Journal of American History “Simplicity of tactics; training for the unexpected; regarding as more important knowing when to make a decision than what the decision should be — these, and the ability to command by obtaining assent rather than by exacting formal obedience, were qualities characteristic of Marshall’s own disposition. And they were tied up with the... conviction... that American Army officers must know how to command a citizen army... the present volume can help to explain why Marshall was a great war leader.” — Kent Roberts Greenfield, Political Science Quarterly “The volume traces in a superb and detailed manner the progress of the General from childhood to the time he assumed the duties as Chief of Staff, U.S. Army in 1939... This book is a most scholarly account of the trials and tribulations of an exceptional Army officer during the period prior to 1939, and clearly demonstrates how the right man got to the right place at the right time.” — Naval War College Review “A provocative history of the Army during the years of Marshall’s rise... Because this is a book rich in research and information it raises questions as well as answers them. It promises to be one of the few indispensable works on the modern American Army.” — Russell F. Weigley, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science “Pogue... presents logically the development of a junior officer... The annotations are bountiful and explicit, the bibliography of great value to historians, the persuasive rebuttal of widely circulated views of a decade ago most welcome. This well-organized and solidly written volume is good in itself and a welcome herald of the post-1939 volumes dealing with periods of great personal, national, and international controversy.” — Mark S. Watson, The American Historical Review “A work very much worth attention... Mr. Pogue’s book... is a fascinating story; it gives a detailed account of the way in which this rather cold and self-contained person became a gifted leader and master of men...” — Bruce Catton, American Heritage “This is a vastly thorough piece of research... a careful picture of the life and problems of an able American regular officer in the first third of the twentieth century.” — C. P. Stacey, International Journal “A book which resembles its subject in simplicity, directness, and thoroughness... This is an excellent example of military-historical writing, and an important contribution to the history of our times.” — H. A. De Weerd, The Virginia Quarterly Review

Forfatteren til værket er Director of the Research Center of the George C. Marshall Research Foundation, og har skrevet andre militærhistoriske bøger. Disse fire bind udkom i årene fra 1964 til 1987, og har følgende undertitler: 1) Education of a General, 1880-1939; 2) Ordeal and Hope, 1939-1942; 3) Organizer of Victory, 1943-1945; 4) Statesman, 1945-1959

Forfatteren til værket er Director of the Research Center of the George C. Marshall Research Foundation, og har skrevet andre militærhistoriske bøger. Disse fire bind udkom i årene fra 1964 til 1987, og har følgende undertitler: 1) Education of a General, 1880-1939; 2) Ordeal and Hope, 1939-1942; 3) Organizer of Victory, 1943-1945; 4) Statesman, 1945-1959

Biography of George C. Marshall, general and statesmen.

“Army chief of staff from 1939 to 1945, Marshall directed the organization and training of US land and air forces during World War II. The fourth and final volume of Pogue’s biography deals with Marshall’s ‘other dimension’ as statesman, humanitarian and peacemaker during his tenure as Secretary of State, head of the American Red Cross and Secretary of Defense during the middle period of the Korean War. This remarkable later career included Marshall’s struggle to bring peace to China in the postwar years; his initiation and implementation of the European Recovery Program (the Marshall Plan); his role in the establishment of NATO and the State of Israel; his reaction to assaults by the radical right led by Sen. Joseph McCarthy; and his working relationship as defense secretary with Secretary of State Dean Acheson, probably the most successful collaboration in the history of the two departments. Pogue, former director of the Marshall Library, thus rounds off his monumental study of one of the great leaders of the 20th century.” — Publishers Weekly “In a supremely apt way, George C. Marshall: Statesman 1945-1959 possesses the same characteristics as its subject: it is thoughtful, mature, balanced and full of humanity and intelligence. It is also a very large and detailed work... [it is] not only important for its author’s emphatic and fully-rounded portrayal of a ‘Great Man.’ It is also vital for the reminder it provides of the qualities of statesmanship and character that Western leaders ought to be emulating today.” — Paul Kennedy, The New York Times “Forrest Pogue has written a grand book about a grand person, the concluding volume in an authorized four-part biography that will likely be the definitive study of Marshall. This is history at its very best.” — Guy Halverson, Christian Science Monitor “In this fourth and final volume of his definitive biography of Marshall... Forrest Pogue... has indeed performed a valuable service in faithfully portraying the outsized talent and dedication of one old soldier who never faded away.“ — Theodore C. Sorensen, Washington Post “Throughout his life, [Marshall] counted his country’s interests higher than his own, placed his duties before his desires and his honor before all else. Duty, honor, country: a triad more often patronized than esteemed in our Aquarian age. Nonetheless, reading Pogue’s biography provides a suitable reminder that it was just those values that formed the life of perhaps the greatest American our nation has produced in this century.” — Larry Collins, Los Angeles Times “Under Pogue’s clear lens, Marshall comes across as a man who gave unselfishly of himself for over 50 years of government service: a fitting conclusion to this definitive biography.” — Kirkus Reviews “Pogue’s account of the China mission is fascinating... This fine work is exhaustively researched and written with care and balance. The author has conducted extensive interviews with the men and women who knew and worked with Marshall.” — Edward Hawley, Chicago Tribune “This book is great biography.” — Infantry Journal “Relying upon interviews with Marshall and his contemporaries as well as more than thirty years of research in the Marshall papers, government documents, memoirs, biographies and monographs, Pogue has now completed a truly great biography, fully worthy of its extraordinary subject, that reveals and explains his character as well as the numerous issues with which he was associated... life. All four [of Pogue's] volumes stand as a model in the field of biography, and a fitting tribute to the author as well as the subject.“ — Mark A. Stoler, The Historian “With this volume, Forrest Pogue cements his place alongside such giant biographers as Douglas Southall Freeman and Carl Sandburg... throughout this volume Pogue elegantly portrays Marshall the soldier, Marshall the statesman, and Marshall the man.“ — Albert M. Bottoms, Naval War College Review “Pogue rightly stresses Marshall's importance in the transition from the Pax Britannica to the Pax Americana.“ — Callum A. MacDonald, Reviews in American History “This is political biography at its best. Pogue has mined the Marshall Papers and various government archives and private manuscript collections, and he has mastered the vast secondary literature of the postwar period. A pioneer in the field of oral history, he fills in crucial details and adds telling anecdotes from hours of interviews with Marshall and his associates... in its mastery of detail, its clarity and simplicity of style, even in its understatement, this is a biography worthy in every respect of the man generally acknowledged to be the greatest American statesman of this century.“ — George C. Herring, The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society “[Pogue] provides an excellent, sometimes meticulous, tracing of the general course of events and American decision-making... [He] has contributed a massive amount of information and produced a lengthy but readable account of American foreign and military policy during the Truman administration.“ — James L. Gormly, The History Teacher “Pogue's selection and use of sources is impeccable... [he] skillful[ly] blend[s] traditional documentary evidence and oral history interviews.“ — Ronald E. Marcello, The Oral History Review