Masters and Commanders

In many ways, the course of the World War II depended on the relationships and temperaments of four of the strongest personalities of the 20th century: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the commanders of their armed forces, General Sir Alan Brooke and General George C. Marshall. Andrew Roberts presents a joint biography of all four men in Masters and Commanders.

In this definitive analysis, Roberts reconstructs the lively debates of the four principals and other leading figures, and examines key questions about the war. Masters and Commanders dramatically re-creates the disputes and maneuverings through which Allied strategy was forged and reveals the profound impact of personality upon history.

Andrew Roberts is the author of A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900. His other books include Napoleon and Wellington, Eminent Churchillians, and Salisbury, which won the Wolfson Prize for History. Roberts's writing appears regularly in The Wall Street Journal. His website can be found at www.andrew-roberts.net.

"Masterly ... Roberts's portrait of the relationship between the four men who made Allied strategy through the war years is a triumph of vivid description, telling anecdotes, and informed analysis." -- Max Hastings, The New York Review of Books