George Marshall

Starred review from May 1, 2019
An overdue, authoritative biography of one of America's greatest soldier-statesmen. Roll (The Hopkins Touch: Harry Hopkins and the Forging of the Alliance to Defeat Hitler, 2013, etc.) emphasizes that George Marshall (1880-1959), a brilliant staff officer, always impressed his superiors. A favorite of Cmdr. John Pershing, he became aide-de-camp when the general served as Army Chief of Staff from 1921 to 1924, and few were surprised when Marshall attained that office in 1939. The author excels in describing the period from Germany's 1939 invasion of Poland until Pearl Harbor, when Marshall urged rearmament and Franklin Roosevelt, aware that most voters opposed it, proceeded too cautiously for his taste. Opposition vanished after Pearl Harbor, to be replaced by questions of strategy, and here, Marshall's record is spotty. He advised defeating Germany before taking the offensive against Japan and invading France in 1942 or 1943 instead of expending resources on the periphery: North Africa and Italy. Always congenial, Roosevelt agreed and then, after listening to public opinion, Churchill, and other advisers, changed his mind. After the war, President Harry Truman sent Marshall to China to end its civil war in what everyone agrees was an impossible assignment. Appointed secretary of state in 1947, he vigorously supported the European Recovery Program, which became known as the Marshall Plan. He resigned in 1949 but returned as secretary of defense in 1950 during the nadir of the Korean War, when he helped restore confidence in the armed forces. He resigned permanently in 1951 and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953, the only serving military officer to do so. Roll admits that America would have won World War II even with a less competent chief of staff, and many of his decisions remain controversial, but he was a thoroughly admirable, surprisingly quirk-free figure who, even during his life, seemed larger-than-life. Despite not straying far from the almost universal veneration, this is a definitive, nuanced portrait.

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May 20, 2019
Lawyer Roll (The Hopkins Touch) continues profiling members of the Roosevelt and Truman administrations with this authoritative and engaging biography of George C. Marshall, the five-star general who served as FDR’s chief of staff during WWII and both secretary of state and secretary of defense for President Truman. Roll convincingly argues that Marshall’s character made him “the most revered and trusted figure in Washington” and delves deeply into Marshall’s humility, judgment, and preference for delivering constructive criticism directly to his superiors. Marshall’s deserved reputation for integrity, Roll posits, proved key to his ability to dictate Allied military strategy and build bipartisan consensus for the relief bill for postwar Europe that would later be known as the Marshall Plan. Roll enlivens the narrative by including some previously unpublished correspondence and excerpts from the memoirs of Marshall’s second wife, Katherine Marshall, and family friend Rosa Page Wilson, which portray a doting husband and devoted family man with a dry sense of humor. While Roll’s admiration for Marshall is obvious, he is unafraid to point out Marshall’s mistakes and failures (including his refusal to integrate the army and the failure of his 1946 mission to unite China’s nationalist and communist governments). This well-written and captivating book will stand as the definitive biography of Marshall. Agent: John Wright, John W. Wright Literary Agency.

June 1, 2019

George C. Marshall (1880-1959)--best known for the U.S. Marshall Plan, the post-World War II economic assistance package aimed at boosting Western Europe's recovery--had a long and distinguished career ranging from staff positions during the First World War to serving as secretary of defense during the Korean War. Roll (The Hopkins Touch) recants Marshall's life, particularly his military and diplomatic positions, all the while emphasizing the personal moral code by which Marshall lived. The progression of Marshall's career is noted, and a significant number of pages are devoted to World War II, during which Marshall was the army chief of staff. He later served as secretary of state under President Harry Truman, at which time he gave the Harvard lecture regarding the postwar rebuilding plan that was the first televised State Department speech in history. There already exist a number of Marshall biographies, ranging from those similar to this title to Forrest Pogue's four-volume set. Roll claims that perspectives and attitudes regarding Marshall have changed and new sources have emerged since many previous works were published, and while the author does a fine job here, the market seems saturated. VERDICT Recommended for those interested in the latest World War II biographies. [See Prepub Alert, 1/7/19.]--Matthew Wayman, Pennsylvania State Univ. Lib., Schuylkill Haven

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2019

Roll (The Hopkins Touch) revisits the man Winston Churchill called World War II's "organizer of victory," trekking through two world wars, the Korean conflict, and the Cold War generally to show why George Marshall was considered a military genius even as a young officer and ended by helping to shape America's postwar emergence as a major power.

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.