Jim Lacey (1) (1958–)

A fine history of the battle of Marathon. Lacey is a military man, a journalist and a professor at the Marine War College. The book begins with a teaser briefly describing the battle. The author then discusses the rise of Darius and the Persian empire, the rise of Athens and the nature of Sparta and Athens, the immediate preceding history of the Ionian revolt, the Persian and Greek styles of warfare, and, finally, his view of what happened at the battle. There is a concluding discussion of other theories of the battle. The author uses his military knowledge to support or explain seeming contradictions with Herodotus and to support his own version of likely events at the battle. As usual, I feel obligated to mention that more maps would be better. (3.5)… (más)

What one has with this monograph is a brisk debunking of some of the "just so" stories that have accumulated around America's mobilization for World War II in the light of economic realism. In the process of which Lacey degrades the contribution of Albert Wedemeyer's so-called "Victory Plan," illustrates the downside of FDR's performance as a warlord (at least when it came to procurement), shows how George Marshall knew damn well in 1942 that there would be no seaborne invasion of France in 1943 and just generally illustrates the influence of economic planners and managers in terms of converting strategic aspirations into a real action plan. The overall impact is to reiterate the old saying that war is too important to be left to the generals.… (más)

This was a very good book. I got it so that I could learn something about Pershing without listening to his (boring and long) memoirs. The book was only a 5+ hour listen and balanced his life without the detail of many tactical movements of Indians Wars, the Spanish American War, Pancho Villa's conflict or Germans in France during WWI...his career spanned those times. Best known for insisting on and maintaining unity of command during WWI of American forces, the book describes the many arrogant French and English attempts to assimilate Americans into an already unsuccessful meat grinder...and Pershings repeated repulses. So, it would seem that his contributions are logistics, command relations and officer development. Additionally, one sees the impact of generations of American military from Grant through Marshall and their impact on 20th century history. I think that I'll read some more from this series.… (más)