Ike and Monty: Generals at War Book

Fifty years after the Allied invasion of Normandy, here is a sweeping dual portrait of the deeply troubled collaboration between two of history's greatest military leaders. "Ike and Monty" is the first book to focus exclusively on how their relationship determined the fate of the Allied effort to liberate Europe in World War II. It is a compelling account of the roles played in the struggle against Nazi Germany by Dwight David Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander and Bernard Law Montgomery, the most celebrated British battlefield commander of modern times. Eisenhower and Montgomery were men of such profoundly contrasting temperaments and strategic orientation that their relationship was bound to be difficult and at times stormy. And their often bitter discord greatly influenced the way the war was fought and won. Norman Gelb traces the development of both men from their disparate upbringings to their separate and joint military achievements—and shortcomings—in the most devastating conflict in history. This is also an account of how their clash of wills and its consequences came to personify the historic moment when the United States assumed the role of superpower in the West and once-powerful Britain was obliged to accept that it could no longer aspire to such exalted status.