Patton - by Carlo D'Este (Paperback)

About the Book

Based on exclusive access to his personal and public papers, and with the full cooperation of his family, Patton is an intimate look at the colorful, charismatic, and sometimes controversial man who became the one general the Germans respected and feared the most during World War II. Photos.

Book Synopsis

"Biography at its very best. Literate and meaty, incisive and balanced, detailed without being pedantic. Mr. D'Este's Patton takes its rightful place as the definitive biography of this American warrior." --Dallas Morning News

A comprehensive biography of General George Patton draws on hitherto unavailable letters, diaries, and memoirs, uncovering many new facts to create an insightful and definitive portrait of an American military hero.

Fifty years after his death, General George S. Patton Jr. remains one of the most colorful, charismatic, misunderstood, and controversial figures ever to set foot on the battlefields of World War II. And the image of the man has been not a little influenced by the 1970 film Patton, starring George C. Scott, in which he is portrayed as a swashbuckling, brash, profane, impetuous general who wore ivory-handled pistols into battle and slapped two hospitalized soldiers in Sicily.

It is one of the achievements of this riveting biography that it reveals the complex and contradictory personality that lay behind the facade. With full access to Patton's private and public papers, and the cooperation of the general's family, D'Este shows us not only the extrovert Patton of public perception but also the intensely private Patton - the devoted student of history, the poet, the humble man very unsure of his own abilities - who could burst into tears, be charming or insulting quite unexpectedly, and the Patton who trained himself for greatness with a determination matched by no other general in the twentieth century.

From the Back Cover

Patton: A Genius for War is a full-fledged portrait of an extraordinary American that reveals the complex and contradictory personality that lay behind the swashbuckling and brash facade. According to Publishers Weekly, the result is "a major biography of a major American military figure."

"This massive work is biography at its very best. Literate and meaty, incisive and balanced, detailed without being pedantic. Mr. D'Este's Patton takes its rightful place as the definitive biography of this American warrior." --Calvin L. Christman, Dallas Morning News

"D'Este tells this story well, and gives us a new understanding of this great and troubled man."-The Wall Street Journal

"An instant classic." --Douglas Brinkley, director, Eisenhower Center

Review Quotes

"An instant classic. Never before has General George S. Patton, Jr. sprung back to life in all his heroic and complicated glory as in this first-rate biography." - Douglas Brinkley

"Remarkably good. . . . D'Este presents a picture that neither beautifies nor damns his subject. This is revisionism at its very best." - New York Times Book Review

"A major biography of the famous battlefield general by a superb historian of the Army where Patton rose to fame and fell into infamy." - Washington Post Book World

"Of all the studies revealing Patton, D'Este's is by far the most complete. . . . This is the definitive biography." - Martin Blumenson

"D'Este tells this story well, and gives us a new understanding of this great and troubled man." - Wall Street Journal

"This massive work is biography at its very best. Literate and meaty, incisive and balanced, detailed without being pedantic. Mr. D'Este's Patton takes its rightful place as the definitive biography of this American warrior." - Dallas Morning News