Victor Davis Hanson on the ‘Savior Generals’ - Revealing the shared traits of the great men who turned around lost battles

FrontPageMag.Com - Victor Davis Hanson is an American military historian, former classics professor, scholar of ancient warfare, a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution and the author of some 20 books. He has been a commentator on modern warfare and contemporary politics for National Review and is a nationally syndicated columnist for the Tribune Media Group. Thus, it was particularly interesting to hear him talk about his new book, “The Savior Generals,” at the David Horowitz Freedom Center’s Wednesday Morning Club luncheon held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills on August 12th.

The major theme of the book, he said, was how contrarian and unpopular generals have often saved the day, defying the odds, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat to win a campaign and sometimes an entire war. To illustrate this, Hanson spanned almost 2,600 years, choosing Themistocles, Belisarius, Sherman, Ridgway and Petraeus as examples. Hanson noted they all shared certain traits: They all enjoyed their reputations for bucking conventional wisdom; they were all highly literate; they all spoke well and they all led by example.

When confronted with catastrophe, all of Hanson’s examples had one question in mind: “What is the plan of attack?” These great men also understood that in war the status of aggressors and defenders and of the victors and the vanquished is not interchangeable.     More   PTG