Though the book may appear daunting, it is wonderfully readable and edifying. This influence and experiences are even more compelling as we see China’s growth and influence on the world stage. His life and career lends incredible insight into where we are as a nation because he was central to so many significant events.
Manchester’s book is sizeable, but I flew through the content because Douglas MacArthur is such a compelling character. That’s about as succinct and accurate as it gets for how Manchester presented an immensely complex character. That is the price the author pays for presenting MacArthur as he was: simultaneously hateful and inspiring, direct and untrustworthy, realistic and obsessively romantic. Ideologues of the Right will find the portrait too disparaging and those of the Left, too flattering. The fullest biography yet of America's most dramatized (by himself and others) military leader. In 1979, Professor Gaddis Smith wrote the following summary of Manchester’s book in Foreign Affairs: Most of what I knew took place in conjunction with his downfall at the end of the Korean War, which was undoubtedly inadequate.Īfter a quick detour to read about Julius Caesar, I moved straight toward William Manchester’s esteemed biography, American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur 1880 – 1964. The great focus on the European front in WWII left me with a minimal foundation on the life of MacArthur. The book prompted a new curiosity about Douglas MacArthur, about whom I knew very little. JSTOR 1986876.Earlier this year, I read a George Marshall biography in hopes of learning more about the rebuilding of Europe after WWII. "William Manchester's American Caesar: Some Observations". It was made into a series in 1983 hosted by John Huston. As the title suggests, Manchester's central thesis is that MacArthur was an analogue of Julius Caesar, a proposition he supports by noting their great intellect, brilliant strategic generalship, political ambition, magnanimity as conquerors, and shared tragic flaw of hubris. Manchester paints a sympathetic but balanced portrait of MacArthur, praising the general for his military genius, administrative skill, and personal bravery, while criticizing his vanity, paranoia, and tendency toward insubordination. American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur, 1880-1964 is a 1978 biography of General of the Army Douglas MacArthur by American historian William Manchester.
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