The War Lords: Military Commanders of the Twentieth Century

by Michael Carver (Editor)

Brief biographies of forty-three outstanding field and air marshalls, generals, and admirals of this century, from Jellicoe to Juin, incorporate analyses of their characters, talents, and strategies

Genres: History, Biography, Military Fiction, World War I, Nonfiction

624 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Field Marshal Richard Michael Power Carver, Baron Carver GCB, CBE, DSO & Bar, MC, was a senior British Army officer. Lord Carver served as the Chief of the General Staff, the professional head of the British Army, and then as the Chief of the Defence Staff, the professional head of the British Armed Forces. He served in the Second World War and organized the administration of British forces deployed in response to the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya and later in his career provided advice to the British Government on the response to the early stages of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

Reviews

[Steven Henry]

3.5, with an extra .5 for being in my personal area of interest. This is a lengthy collection of short biographies of military leaders from WWI and WWII. I almost wish Carver had left out the token one or two that weren't European so he could just have said he was focusing on white military commanders.

That said, as with any anthology, the individual biographies are of variable quality, some very dry, others entertaining and engrossing. On the whole, worth a look for an amateur history reader looking for an overview of some of the more famous commanders from these two conflicts.

[Gerry]

The War Lords is a 611-page collection of 43 essays on field marshals and generals who commanded armies or greater in World Wars I and II. Readers are likely to be familiar with such historians as Albert Seaton, Correlli Barnett, Ronald Lewin, Forrest C. Pogue, and Martin Blumenson. The essays run from ten to twenty-nine pages. Sadly the majority of the articles are little better than paeans to the subjects' deeds. I found the chapters on the lesser-known (to me) commanders of World War I to be more enjoyable. They were more evaluative of their subjects' accomplishments and failures in a war that allowed more of the latter. Several essays would've benefited from maps. Overall, the book, while instructive because some names are less known, was little better than a collection of encyclopedia articles.

[Leon Jester]

Published in 1976 here in the United States, edited by the late Field Marshal Sir Michael Carver, former Chief of the Imperial General Staff (UK).

This is a collection of brief biographies/impressions of major military figures of the Twentieth Century, written primarily by people who worked with them. The individual impressions are well-written, the book itself was well-edited by FM Carver.

I'd recommend it to anyone interested in history.