Rethinking the New Deal Court: The Structure of a Constitutional Revolution Book

On top of his superhuman logistic, military-industrial management skills, George Marshall also gets a thumbs up for sucessfully dealing with Montgomery and the wounded pride of the British. That wounded pride came with quite a bit of nastiness, at times devious, at others hilariously balls-out (like the time, just after the German surrender, when the British realized they couldn't feed their agreed-on 50% of POWs; they had also agreed to transfer to the Americans thousands of Austrian horses, which they duly sent along accompanied by 80,000 POWs, "caretakers" for the horses). Perret makes the case that Monty was a superb corps-level commander promoted to army command and belaureled above his ability by the British need for a ground forces hero. He'd beaten Rommel, after all. He could also be an absurd drama queen--there is something so Monty Python-ish about a carefully dignified Field Marshall suddenly tantruming like a crazed child--and a pain in the ass to rival MacArthur. Those two guys make Patton look humble and cooperative. US-British friction stood out for me, but this book really has everything. A good operational overview, plus a ton of info on logistics, shipping, military pedagogy, industrial output--stuff I really geek out for.