American Generalship: Character is Everything: The Art of Command

This is an excellent book for anyone interested in what it takes to be a leader. Filled with many excellent tidbits of history and personal insights from the leaders themselves, Puryear has put together a really good book, one that I will recommend to many others. Of particular note, in my opinion, are his references to leaders embracing change (p.70 and 32), Marshall's decision-making (p. 56-57), the importance of your chief of staff (p.90), how to react to decisions that don't go your way, matching leaders to their jobs, and his thousands of quotes and anecdotes from Ridgway, Marshall, Westmoreland, Eisenhower, Powell, MacArthur, etc.

I've been in leadership and management positions, military and civilian, for most of my adult life. I've read a lot of books on leadership - some good, some not. This one among the best I've ever read, if not THE best. It's oriented towards military leadership, but it is applicable to leadership in any organization. It's also a first rate history of military and senior Government leadership in World War II and later. I wish I had had this book 30 years ago.

This book provided insight into the minds of the senior leaders of the military. It provided me w/a framework to continually develop and improve my own leadership abilities. I highly recommend this book, not only to new and current officers,(I have given my copy to my Platoon Leader) but to ALL enlisted men and women serving as NCOs, in the U.S. military. The information provided in this text can be utilized by ANYONE desiring to improve their leadership abilities. This book by Puryear has me wanting more, and now I must read his previous book "19 Stars".

In his work American Generalship, Edgar Puryear presents the most detailed, insightful, and engrossing examination of what core values make great leaders. Through a splendid story telling style Puryear identifies the common threads found within the character of all of the United States military's finest leaders by showing how each exercised these principals in the most critical of situations. I thought enough of this book to send a copy to my son at West Point with a note saying, "...here is your bible..."

American Generalship is a quick, easy read. Mr Puryear presents us with the Chiefs of Staff of the Army and Air Force (and one Navy Admiral) of the last half of the century and details those core beliefs and traits that made them sucessful. Although the target audience are officers in the Armed Forces, the principles apply equally to the business world. The only complaint that I have is that little was mentioned about the Viet Nam era Service Chiefs. The 1950's and the 1970's - 80's were covered in depth, but the Viet Nam era was sparse. I heartily recommend this book.