After three days of intense fighting at Cantigny, France, the American Expeditionary Forces’ (AEF) 1st Infantry Division (“The Big Red 1”) secured its first major victory, establishing itself as a credible combat force capable of meeting the rigors of the then three-year-old Great War. The division’s performance validated General Pershing’s vision for an independent American army, boosted Allied morale and confidence, and earned the respect of the enemy. Instrumental to the success of both the 1st Infantry Division and the AEF was the division’s 37-year-old operations officer, Lieutenant Colonel George Catlett Marshall.
My own understanding of Marshall, regretfully, fell somewhere in the middle until I picked up David L. Roll’s Marshall: Defender of the Republic. Roll’s portrayal of Marshall the man, citizen, soldier, and statesman, set against the backdrop of the twentieth century’s defining events, is superb.
The Author
Roll, a successful lawyer turned historian and author, combines meticulous research, nuance, and compelling storytelling in equal measure. His work focuses on the American national security decision-makers who shaped the twentieth century, including books on Louis Johnson, Harry Hopkins, and, more recently, Harry Truman. In Marshall, I found Roll’s balance of detail and narrative both engaging and fast-paced. If his other books are even half as good as Marshall, they deserve a place on any serious reader’s shelf.
The Book
Roll makes extensive use of newly available original source material from Marshall’s papers and records, gaining unique insight into Marshall not previously tapped by earlier biographers. Forest C. Pogue’s monumental four-volume (released 1963-1987), 2,250-page official biography of General Marshall, is universally praised for its extensive research, direct interviews with key figures, and at the time unparalleled access to Marshall’s personal records. But Roll’s book offers unique insights from Marshall’s full papers and materials not available to Pogue, and does so at a more efficient (704 pages), smaller by comparison volume, without any loss of fidelity and nuance in its treatment of Marshall’s life and character.
Laid out chronologically, I found each successive chapter intriguing, and anyone could easily serve as the foundation for an independent volume. Marshall’s service in World War I, his leadership of the Army during World War II, and his role in shaping the postwar order could each have supported a book of their own. Roll also articulates, in an easy-to-follow manner, the complexities of Marshall’s relationships with the White House and America’s allies, principally Great Britain and the Soviet Union, through the many strategic conferences conducted throughout the war.
