Patton's Drive : The Making of America's Greatest General

NOW IN PAPERBACK! Military Book Club® Main Selection   History Book Club® Featured Alternate   An unprecedented exploration of the formative years of a legendary American warrior   In nine months and eight days of campaigning during World War II, the Third United States Army of George S. Patton Jr. moved faster and farther, killed or captured more of the enemy, and liberated more cities, towns, and villages than any other army in World War II, and quite possibly, in the history of warfare. In Patton's Drive , acclaimed historian Alan Axelrod tells the story of how a young man who, in the words of Dwight D. Eisenhower, was born to be a soldier," became a modern American general and one of the greatest field commanders of the twentieth century.   Beginning with a dramatic account of Patton's magnificent drive across Europe during World War II, Axelrod looks back to the decades before the war and traces the trajectory that revealed the commander's fighting destiny. In a refreshingly clear, colloquial voice, Axelrod leads us through the determining episodes of Patton's life and the results they produced. In doing so he weaves a story rich with new insights—a story as absorbing as a great novel, but one in which history truly comes alive.