Eisenhower: A Soldier's Life

Media:	Hardcover
Author:	Carlo D'Este, Carlo D Este
Publisher:	Henry Holt & Company
Release date:	04 June, 2002
List price:	~~$35.00~~
Our price:	$23.10 that is 34% off!

Eisenhower: A Soldier's Life

Average rating: Stars

A Four Star Book About a Five Star General

Not too abusive; not too effusive. But like the middle bear's bed, just right.

D'Este credits Eisenhower with a deft political touch, one that may have been too conciliatory to the British for Bradley and Patton's sake, but when all was said and done (and won), just about perfect in the super duper mirror of historian hindsight. After all, the British did have to live with an American as Supreme Commander (best satirized in the little maxim used by the GI's to describe their British counterparts: "Underpaid, undersexed, and under Eisenhower!"). Why not throw Monty a few extra bones?

But of course everyone and his favorite presidential historian knows that Eisenhower's political skills were formidble. The icier ground for Ike has always been his strategic sense. D'Este doesn't try to gloss over Ike's failings in this arena, but he does provide some legitimate excuses. The Broad Front Strategy was politically necessary and most probably, more logistically prudent than Montgomery's beloved narrow thrust. And many of Eisenhower's failings as ground commander could be traced (or at least excused) to bad communications.

But on the whole, Eisenhower the Strategist comes across as vague and unsure, struggling to find his General's Jump Shot. I believe it was Eisenhower's supreme fear of failure that led to his hesitation. Ike rose from colonel to 4-Star General in a startling 16 months. Any rise that rapid is bound to give pause to professional doubters like Brooke and Montgomery, not to mention a young boy who grew up on the wrong side of the Abilene tracks and always felt second best to his elder brother Edgar.

It's a cliche, but Patton seemed desperate to win; Eisenhower desperate not to lose, and any Karl Malone/Utah Jazz fan can tell you there's a difference between the two.

Now off the subject and onto the writer. I had never read D'Este but found myself comparing his writing with William Manchester's, whose American Caeser I just completed. D'Este seems to thrive on war and politics, but his description of little asides (Ike's dog Telek or stories of West Point foibles) runs a bit forced and contrived.

Still, D'Este does have a knack for making you forget you're reading writing, while making you believe you're privy to a great, sprawling, living war, and that unmistakable ear for battle is what earns all great military historians their stars.

Eisenhower: A Soldier's Life - Carlo D'Este, Carlo D Este

A good book on a good man

The Good Colonel has done a good job on Ike. It is a fair and balanced book on the rise of the right man, who was at the right place and time. No one else could of held the Western alliance together as well as he did.I myself think that his Patton biography was the better read but then Patton is always better copy. I just hope that he gets around to MacArthur, George Marshall or Ridgeway soon. I would buy them in a New York Minute.

Carlo D'Este, Carlo D Este - Eisenhower: A Soldier's Life

A Fair and Balanced Look at Ike

Dwight Eisenhower's life has been so thoroughly written about and re-written that another biography seems laughable. Nevertheless, Carlo D'Este deserves credit for this highly readable description and analysis of Ike's career through the end of WWII. D'Este highlights Eisenhower's strengths but also his weaknesses, some of which are in the eye of the beholder (the debate over the "Broad Front" strategy in late 1944-45 will likely never be settled).

Some Eisenhower worshippers may be offended by D'Este's detailing of Ike's faults (both as D'Este defines them and Ike's troublesome British and American contemporaries). However, he always comes back to the one ultimate, essential point: who else could have led the coalition better?

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