The Mask of Command

Keegan, John

ISBN 10: 0140114068 / ISBN 13: 9780140114065

Published by Penguin Books, 1988

About this Item

Seller Inventory # U9780140114065

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Mask of Command
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Publication Date: 1988
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0140114068
• ISBN 13: 9780140114065
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 1757799114.
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: 46924911
• Signed: 9/13/2025 9:31:54 PM
• Seller catalogs:
  • 2
  • U
  • 9780140114065

About this title

Synopsis

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.

About the Author

Sir John Desmond Patrick Keegan (1934-2012), was one of the most distinguished contemporary military historians and was for many years the senior lecturer at Sandhurst (the British Royal Military Academy) and the defense editor of the Daily Telegraph (London). Keegan was the author of numerous books including The Face of Battle, The Mask of Command, The Price of Admiralty, Six Armies in Normandy, and The Second World War, and was a fellow at the Royal Society of Literature.