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Patton and Rommel: Men Of War In The Twentieth Century | 
| Author: Dennis Showalter
Publisher: The Berkley Pub. Group
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 963206
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 448
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 6.1 x 1.5
ASIN: B000CC49H6
Publication Date: April 5, 2005
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Product Description
A dual biography of the two World War II generals who changed warfare--and history--forever.
General George S. Patton and General Erwin Rommel: They served their countries through two World Wars. Their temperaments, both on and off the battlefield, were overwhelmingly contrary-but their approach to modern warfare was remarkably similar.
Written by a prominent military historian, Patton and Rommel takes a provocative look at both figures, intertwining the stories of the paths they took and the decisions they made during the course of the Second World War-and compares the lives and careers of two men whose military tactics redirected the course of history.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
 Two seperate books in one cover September 18, 2008
Although the book is called Patton and Rommel it really is less one book detailing and comparing two of the most famous generals of the Second World War, than it is two biographies, riffled together in one cover.
It also seems to put far more emphasis on Rommel than Patton rather than treat them as equals. In each man's case it details their lives, experiences and their struggles with the development of mobile warfare following the stalemate of the First World War's trenches. But still the two lives do not interact. In reality the two warriors never faced each other across a battlefield but the author does not draw parallels or conclusions. He merely trots out the lives to be displayed on the pages and lets the reader make his or her conclusions.
In telling Rommel's story Showalter details how Rommel could support Hitler without being a Nazi. He explores Rommel's infamous lack of knowledge in using a staff or logistics in an overall theme of the German army and the development of Rommel's near fatal hubris. While exploring Rommel's success in the western desert he in detail pulls down the popular alternate history theory that Germany could have won the war by invading Russia via Palestine.
With Patton he details Patton's family history and his early growth and development in the prewar, contact ladened army and how Patton's person and married into wealth gave him opportunities and access a less wealthy officer would have missed. The reader is given an explanation for the army's way to choose commanders during the war that leads away from the common view that it was a prejudice against `loose cannon' Patton.
One serious weakness is the fact there is almost no real explanation as to the mental unraveling of Patton from a social butterfly in his early days who was put forward as a scholar and poster boy of the charming army officer to the infamous image of a man who in effect could shoot himself in the foot with this mouth and became viewed by commanders as someone who has to be handled. There is a brief reference to a fall while playing polo and a mid life crisis but otherwise what could be viewed as the single most intriguing element of Patton's life is just passed over with an all too familiar litany of his missteps in his later career.
For the book itself, the editing is bad, this NOT the author's fault but several typos make the reader pause to think "what was that?" There are virtually no footnotes and no bibliography. To guide the reader to see what Showalter's sources were.
Visually the book is very weak. There are no maps. OK we can probably all find France and Germany and Italy on a map but it might help to have a more up close view of parts of Africa where much of the fighting takes place, or Lorraine where Patton's army bogged down or the Italian passes where young Rommel first won his spurs.
There are no photos apart from the half face shots on the cover. So one is left to wonder what young Rommel looked like with his Blue Max or young socialite Patton who invariably is otherwise imaged like George C Scott. Both generals were popular with reporters and national PR machines and so there is no dearth of material.
The author says he does not want to be academic but approachable; however he often throws out terms in Latin or French that the reader may well not know. "It was retiarus against secutor" springs to mind.
Overall for the reader who did not know anything about the Generals apart from the old movies and odd documentary, this is a good introduction. It spells out the lives and explores and explodes some of the myths around each man but for more experienced scholars it is weak with the author neither drawing conclusions himself or inviting the reader to do so. There is little enough explanation why the two names are together in one book since they are not compared or contrasted. The book could have as easily been Patton and Hodges or Rommel and Kesselring for all the principal subjects are related within the text.
 Two Great Generals of World War II March 4, 2008
You can see in these 420 pages the author deep knowledge of the history of World War II and a book that provide the right level of information in narrating the lives of two great generals of this war. Both these generals, as you will see, had very different backgrounds, different ways of commands and personalities and it is inevitable to have more sympathy with one them after reading the book. To be a General is a huge responsability which requires several characteristics depending on the job or task, that general will execute. What I admire about Rommel was his previous experience in World War I and for Patton, his knowledge of history and his sense of humor. Patton was an old fashioned soldier, a romantic warrior, with an undoubtedly very peculiar personality. Rommel was an exceptional leader and Feldmarschall that could not flank Hitler's lunatic ideas, finally paying with his life.
I just have one complain with the book, and it is the absolutely lack of maps or bibliography, at least in the paperback. Despite the later, this is a book to recommend.
90 division limit for the US army?! February 5, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Several others have already commented on the curious and total lack of maps and photos. How can you have a book on battles and omit maps? Plus, the textual descriptions of key battles, like El Alamein, Tobruk, Kasserine Pass and the Allied invasion of Sicily are good but abbreviated. You can find far more detailed accounts elsewhere. For example, there are numerous books devoted to El Alamein or the Battle of the Bulge. Still, Showalter must be clearly aware that his book adds little new to the existing accounts of the battles it describes. Perhaps this was the reason for the omission of maps?
The purported value of the book is in its comparison of the experiences and, to some extent, the personalities and motivations of Patton and Rommel. Here, other reviewers have also remarked that this is quite a hard task. But Showalter seems to have done a reasonable job, including, I presume, interviews with Manfred Rommel, the general's son.
But at least for me, there were a few new snippets that I have not found in other texts. First was the deliberate decision by the US to restrict the size of the army to 90 divisions. In part because the navy and marines have to be built up to fight the Pacific war. But also, this let the US arm as heavily as possible those army divisions. So the US took advantage of its industrial prowess, to minimise its casualties. Fair enough. But in many other accounts of the war, I've never run into mention of this 90 division limit. I'm not saying it's a secret. Undoubtedly, there must be books mentioning it; perhaps even the official histories of the US army. Still it's surprising to know. Especially because Showalter asserts that one consequence was that after Normandy, Eisenhower was restricted in how aggressively he could march across Europe. Whereas with more troops, he might have been able to attack earlier into Germany.
Another useful insight was about how Patton and Rommel were regarded after the war, by the militaries of the US and West Germany. Books on World War 2 tend to end their accounts shortly after the end of the war, naturally. So it was interesting to read that ironically, Patton was more highly regarded than Rommel by the Bundeswehr. While the reverse tended to be true in the US. Typically, it is not easy to get any detailed accounts of the Bundeswehr, written in English. Partly because peacetime militaries generate less interest than wartime. But perhaps also because the Bundeswehr deliberately kept a low profile after the war, to discourage militarism. So Showalter's descriptions of Bundeswehr assessments, if accurate, are quite interesting and fill a gap in the general knowledge.
 Nice summary of the careers of two major WWII generals September 24, 2006
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I bought this book at an airport bookstore, and really enjoyed it. For those that don't have the time to read full biographies of Patton and Rommell, this is the book for you. If you've already read separate biographies of the two, I wouldn't necessarily recommend this book.
Light Reading September 18, 2006
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is not a bad book if you realize what it really is: a nice light-reading history. This is not for those who already have dozens of books about these two men. It is a book for those who haven't read much history, but would like to get a nice introduction to these two great generals. For that, it's a really good book.
I found that the author of this book seems to favor Rommel over Patton. Whereas Rommel is depicted as a competent professional soldier, Patton is often depicted as someone who is more concerned with his career and rank rather than military issues. The author paints Patton as a man on the verge of mental breakdown, and as a bit of a whiner. If you're a Patton fan, you might want to avoid this book.
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