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Sign up todayThe Strategists
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Learn moreChurchill. Hitler. Stalin. Mussolini. Roosevelt. Five of the most impactful leaders of WW2, each with their own individualistic and idiosyncratic approach to warfare. But if we want to understand their military strategy, we must first understand the strategist.
In The Strategists, Professor Phillips Payson O'Brien shows how the views these five leaders forged in WW1 are crucial to understanding how they fought WW2. For example, Churchill's experiences of facing the German Army in France in 1916 made him unwilling to send masses of British soldiers back there in the 1940s, while Hitler's mistakes on the Eastern Front were influenced by his reluctance to accept that conditions had changed since his own time fighting. The implications of the power of leaders remain with us to this day: to truly understand what is happening in Ukraine, for example, requires us to know what has influenced the leaders involved.
This is a history in which leaders—and their choices—matter. For better or worse.
Phillips Payson O'Brien is a Professor of Strategic Studies at the University of St. Andrews in Fife, Scotland. Born and raised in Boston, he graduated from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, before working on Wall Street for two years. He earned a PhD in British and American politics and naval policy before being selected as Cambridge University's Mellon Research Fellow in American History, and a Drapers Research Fellow at Pembroke College. Formerly at the University of Glasgow, he moved to St. Andrews in 2016. O’Brien is the author of The Second Most Powerful Man in the World and How the War Was Won.
Reviews
Praise for The Strategists“Phillips Payson O’Brien is one of our finest historical thinkers. The Strategists shows him at the height of his powers: a book full of deep perception, convincingly challenging many entrenched views and examining these five leaders that so shaped the modern world in an entirely fresh, brilliantly insightful and utterly compelling way. Everyone with an interest in not just the Second World War, but the twentieth century and beyond, should read this without delay.” —James Holland, author of Normandy ’44
“The Strategists is an easy read…Thanks to the engaging nature of the subjects—and Mr. O’Brien’s care not to go too far down rabbit holes about weaponry, gulags, local politics and psychology—the narrative moves briskly. By linking decisions to identifiable personality traits, The Strategists provides insight into the minds of titans who vied for Europe’s destiny.” —Wall Street Journal
“An important look at the personal side of how World War II strategy was made.” —New York Journal of Books
"An exploration of grand strategy. Compelling." —Kirkus
“[A] captivating study. . . . O’Brien’s fluid prose makes for enchanting reading; there’s never a dull moment . . . . For military history buffs, this is a must-read." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“The Strategists is a rewarding and robust historical and psychological approach to the grand strategists of World War II and the decisions they--and they alone--made for the world.” —Shelf Awareness
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