My Review 3/5

This is a recorded lecture by “Modern Scholar” and is based on Polell’s book Leadership: Fifty Great Leaders and the Worlds They Made. The book is focused on great leaders of the ‘modern’ era which is primarily western focused and post 18th century. Great leadership is when the leader is transparent. At the end a group of men will think, ‘we did this’. Great leaders delegate to trusted subordinates. They are passionate and resolved.

3 schools of thought on great leaders: ‘trait’ based (white men, over 40 who attended west point). ‘behavior’ based (meticulous, stoic, brave) and ‘circumstances’ based (no great men, ordinary men forged in extraordinary circumstances). Great generals also blend leading with intelligence and leading with heart. War is not just won on the battlefield. War is “99% boredom punctuated by moments of sheer hell”. As described in “The American Revolution” lecture just keeping a standing army is quite a feat.

2 schools of thought on military history: ‘great men’ theory, ie Generals win the war, and ‘common man’ theory. Boots on the ground soldiers are responsible for the winning of wars. Best history (the study of change over time) blends narratives of both. For the best generals win by advancing three fronts: tactical, strategic, objective. It’s said that amateurs study strategy, great generals study logistics. As shown by quartermasters Nathaniel Green in the revolutionary war and US Grant in the American-Mexican war. In fact until WWI more troops die of camp fever (dysentery, infection) and other diseases than do of actual combat.

Introduction is very good overview of historical western wars. Preliminary information on battles by George Washington and Napoleon lack the specific battle tactics as detailed in How Great Generals WinHow Great Generals Win by B. Alexander. A solid crash course in some of history’s defining moments. I would classify this as an easy listen that identifies key characters of history that merits more studying. Have added Grant’s memoirs to my reading list.

So what are the leadership principles that I’ve learned? Great generals lead from the front. On the ‘tip of the spear’. By sharing the risk with subordinates generals bond with them. Expect great things and also demonstrate great things. The lecture described how different generals ‘looked the part’ and others ‘blended in’ but regardless of mannerisms all practiced the principle “to protect peace, prepare for war”. Many great generals were also great trainers. They were not afraid to delegate and trust subordinates, and were wary of ‘number crunching’ the way through war.

Date Read

2016/02/12

Date Added

2016/09/29

Goodreads book information

Command and Control: Great Military Leaders from Washington to the Twenty-First Century by Mark R. Polelle

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12948235

Bookshelves: history

Author’s Note

Initial md Generated using https://github.com/jsr6720/goodreads-csv-to-md

Mark R. Polelle, Command and Control: Great Military Leaders from Washington to the Twenty-First Century, Recorded Books (Audiobook)1

Significant revisions

tags: 2016, book, review, Polelle, history

  • Apr 22nd, 2024 Converted to jekyll markdown format and copied to personal site
  • Feb 12th, 2016 Originally published on goodreads

EOF/Footnotes

  1. ISBN: =”” ↩