Customer Reviews
Comments by Michael Calum Jacques author of '1st Century Radical'. - By: Michael Calum Jacques, 25 Nov 2008 
This fascinating book, thick with historical data & insights, makes a riveting read. Whilst having no wish to quarrel with previous reviewers, for this reviewer, the book's strength is to be found within the all too rare combination of the elucidation of pertinent details & the subsequent compilation & marshaling of this datain order to reach coherent conclusions. The hi-lighting of detailed minutiae is only of secondary value, it would appear, if any historical advances are unable to be procured from it. Fortunately, this fastidiously researched volume aboundsin both.
It is a lengthy read, at round 670 pages, & is at times densein the chronicled information it conveys. It is an honest read, too, & this reviewer profferes that an alternative title could well have been formed along the lines of 'How Roosevelt, Churchill, Marshall & Alanbrooke very nearly didn't Win the Warin the West'! Indeed, some readers - especially those none too conversant with the internecine bickering that went onin & around the corridors of power prior to the D-Day Landings, for example - might be quite take aback at the apparent abrasiveness & the various fractious dealings which formed part of the staple diet of 'Allied' conferences, rhetoric & debate.
This reviewer would want to take issue with one or two pointsin previous press reviews which have suggested that, whilst Andrew Roberts' book remains a immense achievement, it establishes & thus contributes only slight, minor historical detail to the ongoing research into the WWII fray. Surely this is both to ignore key passages & sections of the book & to miss the point. Firstly, from an historical perspective, Roberts has successfully revealed a number of new 'primary' sources (in the forms of 'oral' reports & written chronicles, diaries et al) and, secondly, this information helps us to somewhat 'recalibrate' certainly, & possibly even to reassess the methods & the roles of a number of key policymakers. Again, this would appear to illustrate the author's successful achievementin having interpreted the mass of available data & having translated this into 'applied history'.
There is plenty of historical meat within this work & it should appeal to the interested/well-informed general reader on the one hand & the historian (and possibly even the military tactician) on the other. IThis reviewer found the sections relating to the Allies' 'sweep' across Europe especially interesting & I must congratulate Andrew Roberts on handling the material (which remains a sensitive substance within certain quarters & factions) very well, with confidence & authority. Narratives pertaining to the reticence with which Brooke approached the invasion of France, the mood swings & what amounted to the basic pessimism of Churchill et al will never sit easily with some, yet to gloss over delicate topics such as these would be to gloss over history & to, ultimately misrepresent it. As Quiller-Couch put it, we sometimes have to be prepared 'to murder our darlings' ... occasionally these need to be historical or conceptual little treasures, too!
In a nutshell, this volume accomplishes a great deal, to the mind of this reviewer, at least. It is eminently readable, dense with data, & offers measurable & definite conclusions based on the material within. As ever, this work, too, will now be subject to the rigours of historic analysis itself. This reviewer suspects that it will fair pretty well.
Michael Calum Jacques (author of '1st Century Radical: the shadowy origins of the man who became known as Jesus Christ')
The National Reviews So Far - By: Andrew Roberts, 12 Oct 2008 Reviews of Masters & Commanders
`Writing with clarity & elegance, Mr Roberts conveys how his four principals & their armies of aides & staff officers thrashed out the formulae for victory. This is an important book which,in its layered references to Waterloo, the Crimea & the Somme, sees Mr Roberts lay claim to the title of Britain's finest contemporary military historian.'
The Economist
`Despite eschewing the visceral drama of the battlefield for the less deadly, if no less hard-fought, debates of various Allied conferences, cabinets & committees, Roberts has produced a surprisingly gripping read. He has marshalled his material superbly & his warts-and-all assessment of his four subjects is invariable spot-on. Exhaustively researched & judiciously written, with a gimlet eye for telling detail, this may be his finest book yet.'
Saul David, Sunday Telegraph
`In Masters & Commanders, Roberts offers us a compelling analysis of American & British strategy during the war. He also tells a profoundly human story - of two soldiers who loyally served their masters, only to be each denied at the end the prize that would have made one of them world famous.'
Laurence Rees, Sunday Times
`Roberts displays a profound understanding of the interactions between strategy & politics, & his interpretation of British/US strategic relations between 1941 & 1945 is unlikely to be superseded.'
Prof Vernon Bogdanor, Financial Times
`Couchedin elegant prose, this book is a masterpiece of robust historical analysis, steepedin scholarship & alive to every nuance of personality. Roberts re-evaluates each of the masters & commanders with scrupulous fairness.'
Christopher Silvester, Daily Express
`The author has crafted a masterly & fresh interpretation of the grand strategy of World War II. Roberts's pen-portraits, with their wealth of amusing & often acerbic anecdotes, reveal the evolution of that strategy by the master statesmen.'
John Crossland, Daily Mail
`The strength of Masters & Commanders liesin the power of the narrative & the fascinating detail used to construct it. Roberts has exploited a rich mine of private papers to fillin missing parts of the story, & although there is little new to be learned about the long strategic arguments between the British & the Americans over the best way to defeat Hitler, there is a lot to learn about the way that argument took place. Roberts has a shrewd grasp of the ins & outs of decision making.'
Prof Richard Overy, Literary Review
`Marshal Foch famously said that he had "less respect for Napoleon, now that I know what a coalition is". The high quality of the leadership of the coalition Andrew Roberts so expertly describes was a decisive factorin their success.'
Conrad Black, Mail on Sunday
`A wonderful page-turner, a really good read.'
Chris Patten, Start the Week
