num_pages: 368
description: John Keegan’s brilliant look at the meaning of leadership  In The Mask of Command, John Keegan asks us to consider questions that are seldom asked: What is the definition of leadership? What makes a great military leader? Why is it that men, indeed sometimes entire nations, follow a single leader, often to victory, but with equal dedication also to defeat?Dozens of names come to mind...Napoleon, Lee, Charlemagne, Hannibal, Castro, Hussein. From a wide array, Keegan chooses four commanders who profoundly influenced the course of history: Alexander the Great, the Duke of Wellington, Ulysses S. Grant and Adolph Hitler. All powerful leaders, each cast in a different mold, each with diverse results.The Mask of Command  is a companion volume to John Keegan's classic study of the individual soldier,  The Face of Battle : together they form a masterpiece of military and human history.
language: English
title: The Mask of Command
titlecomplete: The Mask of Command
characters: Alexander the Great, Adolf Hitler, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Ulysses S. Grant
genres: Civil War, Nonfiction, Biography, World History, Military Fiction, Psychology, War, Leadership, History, Military History
ratings_count: 2690
publisher: Penguin Books