Generals in the Making

After World War II, Winston Churchill wondered how the U.S. found and developed the generals who won the war. German commanders expressed similar amazement over the dynamic change in American military leadership from World War I to World War II. Despite the obstacles of the 1920s and 1930s, when a national preference for isolationism and eventually the Great Depression left the U.S. military diminished and impoverished, the interwar army was nevertheless the incubator of future leaders such as Marshall, Eisenhower, MacArthur, Bradley, and Patton. In a book of extraordinary insight, Benjamin Runkle shows how these men emerged – in anything but predetermined fashion – from the ashes of the interwar army to become the greatest generation of senior commanders in military history.Generals in the Making begins with World War I, in which, most notably, Douglas MacArthur, George Patton, and George Marshall served with distinction: Marshall on General Pershing’s staff, MacArthur as a decorated field commander, and Patton as a tank leader. Over the next two decades, these men and their contemporaries – Dwight Eisenhower, Omar Bradley, Lucian Truscott, Matthew Ridgway, Lightning Joe Collins, Walter Bedell Smith, Joseph Stilwell, and more – frequently crossed paths in the small army of the 1920s and 1930s, attending the same professional schools, serving under the same commanders, even living as neighbors. These were lean years for the army, years in which promotions came slowly, and service often meant far-flung postings at isolated Midwest bases or in the Philippines. For some these years brought personal tragedy, such as Eisenhower’s loss of a young son and Marshall’s loss of his wife; for others they brought professional setbacks, from academic failure to even court-martial. The closest these budding commanders got to combat was the unfortunate assault on the Bonus Army in 1932 and the 1941 Louisiana Maneuvers, but during these years, the future commanders not only learned, but innovated and reformed – and set the U.S. Army as well as themselves on the road to success in the coming war.Part military history and part group biography, Generals in the Making is the first comprehensive history of the United States’ World War II generals between the wars, covering not only the lives and careers of this brotherhood of officers, but also the crucible of military ideas and innovation in which they served.

“Ben Runkle illuminates the hidden lives of these future commanders between World War I and World War II in Generals in the Making. Runkle is uniquely qualified to write this story. He knows the Army and its soldiers, as shown by his mastery of the primary and secondary literature about these great captains and his acknowledgment that there are flesh-and-blood men beneath the uniforms. Runkle writes elegantly and for a broad readership, yet avid readers of military history will still learn new things . . . Runkle's book is ultimately inspiring. Patton, MacArthur, Marshall, and Eisenhower had personal and professional problems with which many empathize or sympathize. Generals in the Making is an important new addition to our knowledge of these flawed and great men.”

Covering U.S. army leadership from the beginning of the twentieth century to the end of World War II, this book details the careers of those generals mentioned in the title and of many other military luminaries. En route, the text provides a detailed history of both world wars and of the depression that crippled the U.S. between them.

Runkle makes "important contributions to the profession of arms. In reading Generals in the Making, military leaders will see the important role the nontangible aspects of the profession play in leader development: the time we spend reflecting, the books we read, and the mentors we listen to."

Benjamin Runkle is a former paratrooper and presidential speechwriter who holds a doctorate from Harvard and a Bronze Star from Operation Iraqi Freedom. His government posts included the National Security Council, the House Armed Services Committee, and the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Cybersecurity and Communications. He has previously been a political scientist with the RAND Corporation and now is a senior fellow with Artis International, a think tank working at the intersection of behavioral science and political violence. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Christian Science Monitor, The Guardian, the Jerusalem Post, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Tablet Magazine, Joint Forces Quarterly, The Weekly Standard, The Hill, RealClearDefense.com, WarOnTheRocks.com, and Small Wars Journal. Runkle is the author of Wanted Dead or Alive: Manhunts from Geronimo to Bin Laden. The Washington Times called it “colorful, fast-paced”; “his writing is readable without being breezy, meaty without being ponderous.” He lives in Alexandria, Virginia.

After World War II, Winston Churchill wondered how the U.S. found and developed the generals who won the war. German commanders expressed similar amazement over the dynamic change in American military leadership from World War I to World War II. Despite the obstacles of the 1920s and 1930s, when a national preference for isolationism and eventually the Great Depression left the U.S. military diminished and impoverished, the interwar army was nevertheless the incubator of future leaders such as Marshall, Eisenhower, MacArthur, Bradley, and Patton. In a book of extraordinary insight, Benjamin Runkle shows how these men emerged - in anything but predetermined fashion - from the ashes of the interwar army to become the greatest generation of senior commanders in military history. Generals in the Making begins with World War I, in which, most notably, Douglas MacArthur, George Patton, and George Marshall served with distinction: Marshall on General Pershing's staff, MacArthur as a decorated field commander, and Patton as a tank leader. Over the next two decades, these men and their contemporaries - Dwight Eisenhower, Omar Bradley, Lucian Truscott, Matthew Ridgway, Lightning Joe Collins, Walter Bedell Smith, Joseph Stilwell, and more - frequently crossed paths in the small army of the 1920s and 1930s, attending the same professional schools, serving under the same commanders, even living as neighbors. These were lean years for the army, years in which promotions came slowly, and service often meant far-flung postings at isolated Midwest bases or in the Philippines. For some these years brought personal tragedy, such as Eisenhower's loss of a young son and Marshall's loss of his wife; for others they brought professional setbacks, from academic failure to even court-martial. The closest these budding commanders got to combat was the unfortunate assault on the Bonus Army in 1932 and the 1941 Louisiana Maneuvers, but during these years, the future commanders not only learned, but innovated and reformed - and set the U.S. Army as well as themselves on the road to success in the coming war. Part military history and part group biography, Generals in the Making is the first comprehensive history of the United States' World War II generals between the wars, covering not only the lives and careers of this brotherhood of officers, but also the crucible of military ideas and innovation in which they served.

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