Masters and Commanders

Reviews

US Reviews

‘Roberts’s analysis of the shifts of Anglo-American sentiment, and above all his descriptions of the great Western Allied summit conferences of the war, are masterly. Andrew Roberts is an exceptionally diligent researcher who has drawn upon a remarkable range of sources, some of them hitherto unexplored. The overwhelming merit of his book lies in the quality of the author’s analysis and judgments. Roberts’s portrait of the relationship between the four men who made the Allied strategy through the war years is a triumph of vivid description, telling anecdotes, and informed analysis. His book reinforces his claim to stand amongst the foremost British historians of the period.’
Sir Max Hastings, New York Review of Books

‘British historian Andrew Roberts skillfully dissects the contentious relationship among Brooke, Marshall, Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roberts’s account of their duels with each other is the most compelling part of the book.’
Lynne Olson, The Washington Post

‘Andrew Roberts operates as an independent historian, combining the temperament of a sedulous researcher with the fluency of a true writer of narrative and the cool eye of a close student of human behaviour.’
Josiah Bunting, Commentary

'With his usual brisk and vivid prose, Mr Roberts shows how these men and their busy staffs overcome conflicting interests and coordinated strategy among the Western Allies to win the war.'
Dr William Hay, Wall Street Journal

Like a good novelist, he never introduces a character without giving the reader a concise biography of him, and he manages to maintain the flow of his narrative so that one is kept reading by the sheer force of events, while keeping him or her awake when discussions of policy become heavy going by glimpses of the real man behind the words... Still, all in all, if you wanted to know how “the Grand Alliance” worked, and how the decisions were made that eventually led to the Allied victory in World War Two, this would be the book to read... In short, Roberts has taken all the material and condensed it down into one very readable and notably fair-minded volume.
Michael Korda, The Daily Beast

‘The literature on this subject has grown to massive dimensions in recent decades and it is thus difficult to see how anyone could add much value. Roberts, however, has succeeded in doing so, partly through his sheer skill as an historian, his penetrating judgement when presented with conflicts and contradictions on the documents, and a graceful writing style through which he assists the reader through one complex debate after another over wartime strategy. Like all outstanding works of history, this one is written with a purpose to instruct the present through an understanding of the past. In this sense, Masters and Commanders is the best type of history, faithful to the past yet relevant to the present.’
James Piereson, The American Spectator  

‘Masters and Commanders is a riveting read, in no small part because Roberts is a master storyteller who has real empathy for all four participants in the quartet and is able to show how their sometimes casual conversations and decisions changed the lives of tens of millions fighting across the globe. As a careful critic, he does not demand that the four be perfect, but instead appreciates just how difficult it was for them to prove to be so good at what they did.
Masters and Commanders is an intellectual achievement of the first order that offers a much needed revisionist and positive portrait of the odd-duck Brooke and new appreciation of how Roosevelt’s political skills translated into strategic insight. Only a historian of Andrew Roberts’s talents and judiciousness could have had such command of imperial archives and private British documents—and would have been so evenhanded and so astute in traversing this minefield of wartime Anglo-American relations.’
Victor Davis Hanson, The New Criterion

‘Roberts succeeds in deepening our understanding of the complex interactions between Winston Churchill (the “masters” of the title) and their senior military advisers (or “commanders”), Field Marshal Alan Brooke and General George C. Marshall.  Committee work may not be terribly glamorous, but Masters and Commanders shows that it can be vitally important, and also surprisingly entertaining.’
Max Boot, The New York Times Book Review

‘So much has been written about World War II. Is it possible that another 700 pages is warranted or welcome? British historian Andrew Roberts makes a compelling case for the affirmative with Masters and Commanders.’
David Holahan, Christian Science Monitor

‘The most detailed account to date of Allied strategic decision-making during the war. Masters and Commanders is a fabulous resource of information, using many sources that had until now been unavailable to historians.’
Brian John Murphy, America in World War Two

‘Roberts offers an outstanding example of a joint biography in this study of the actions and interactions of Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, George Marshall and Alan Brooke. The president, the prime minister and their respective army chiefs of staff were the vital nexus of the Anglo-American alliance in WWII. The path was anything but smooth. London-based historian Roberts demonstrates his usual mastery of archival and printed sources to show how the tensions and differences among these four strong-willed men shaped policy within a general context of consensus.’
Publishers Weekly Review

‘A well-told story, with fresh insights into the decision-making processes and the influence of personality upon great events.’
Edwin B.Burgess, Library Journal

‘A richly detailed examination of the military and civilian leaders of
Britain and America during World War II. Roberts's narrative sometimes reads like an exercise in game theory, with each player trying to secure maximum advantage without ending the game or, worse, losing all. His book will be of value to students not just of military history, but also diplomacy, business and other endeavors requiring negotiation. Excellent and essential.’
Kirkus (starred review)

‘Roberts reinforces his reputation for high-quality military history with this comprehensive synthesis of primary sources about the fundamental strategic decisions of World War II.’
Gilbert Taylor, Booklist

UK Reviews

'On every page of this superlative history of the four men ultimately responsible for what the allies did in the second World War, Andrew Roberts reminds you that they were limited and fallible human beings'
Vera Rule, The Guardian

'There's lots of new material here... the details are splendid like his description of the chaotic state of Roosevelt's desk, which didn't stop him from being an exceptionally talented politician.'
Nicholas Bagnall, Sunday Telegraph

‘Andrew Roberts, a tenacious archival historian and gifted writer, looks behind the façade of the familiar photographs and published accounts to see how these war leaders actually operated. The answer is a convincing one. … Despite many differences of opinion, and a series of strong and at times bitter clashes with their masters, clashes that Roberts documents with skill and verve, Marshall and Brooke were the professionals in whom the President and Prime Minister had the utmost trust. … Using Cabinet records, private diaries, the notes of participants in the most secret meetings and a wide range of contemporary sources, Roberts builds up a convincing – and dramatic – picture: not only of the four men of the title, but, in 584 pages of scintillating historical writing, of the whole rich panorama of Britain and the United States at war.’
Sir Martin Gilbert, Evening Standard

‘In a class apart is the latest book by Andrew Roberts. Masters and Commanders. Roberts is a master of the existing sources and has uncovered a host of new ones. This new material, and the illuminating device of combining the views and projects of the political and military decision-makers, gives a fresh and unusual version of the wartime story. Roberts steers a well-judged course through the conflicting accounts and provides wonderful pen portraits of his talented and argumentative characters. His tone is magisterial and definitive and Brooke and Marshall emerge from the shadows with both their political acumen and their human foibles intact. This book is Roberts’s masterpiece, an achievement that adds lustre to his already substantial reputation.’
Richard Gott, The Observer

‘Andrew Roberts’s Masters and Commanders is a beautifully researched and wonderfully told tale. You leave this book unread this summer at your peril to your understanding not only of war, but of the relevance of that history to the policy decisions facing British voters.’
Irwin Stelzer, The Daily Telegraph

'Andrew Roberts is one of the liveliest as well as the most considerable of contemporary historians. He is hard-working and exceptionally well-informed, lucid, highly intelligent, pugnacious, occasionally perverse (though much less often than he used to be), combining an impressive grasp of the overall picture with a fine eye for the illuminating detail. He also writes uncommonly well.'
Philip Ziegler, Spectator

‘Despite eschewing the visceral drama of the battlefield for the less deadly, if no less hard-fought, debates of various Allied conferences, cabinets and committees, Roberts has produced a surprisingly gripping read. He has marshalled his material superbly and his warts-and-all assessment of his four subjects is invariable spot-on. Exhaustively researched and judiciously written, with a gimlet eye for telling detail, this may be his finest book yet.’
Saul David, Sunday Telegraph

‘Writing with clarity and elegance, Mr Roberts conveys how his four principals and their armies of aides and staff officers thrashed out the formulae for victory. This is an important book which, in its layered references to Waterloo, the Crimea and the Somme, sees Mr Roberts lay claim to the title of Britain’s finest contemporary military historian.’
The Economist

‘In Masters and Commanders, Roberts offers us a compelling analysis of American and British strategy during the war. He also tells a profoundly human story – of two soldiers who loyally served their masters, only to be each denied at the end the prize that would have made one of them world famous.’
Laurence Rees, Sunday Times

‘Roberts’s approach is fresh, his judgements for the most part are sound, and the authority with which the book is written is unquestionable.’
James Holland, The RUSI Journal

‘Roberts displays a profound understanding of the interactions between strategy and politics, and his interpretation of British/US strategic relations between 1941 and 1945 is unlikely to be superseded.’
Prof Vernon Bogdanor, Financial Times

‘Andrew Roberts lays claim to the title of Britain’s finest contemporary military historian with this important analysis of grand strategy during the second world war.’
The Economist Books of the Year

‘History as it should be written; a gripping narrative which combines revelatory personal detail about some of our most inspiring leaders with a masterly handling of grand strategy. Roberts provides entirely new insights into how the Second World War was fought.’
Michael Gove, Mail on Sunday Books of the Year

‘Andrew Roberts is a superb historian. In Masters and Commandeers he is in his element, weaving a gripping account of the crucial and complex dynamics surrounding the four big beasts of the Special Relationship when it really mattered. His intimate portraits not only provide a penetrating insight into their extraordinary characters but also illuminate the grand strategy which, in partnership with Stalin, saved the world from Hitler’ Jonathan Dimbleby, Mail on Sunday Books of the Year

‘This book brins vividly to life the personal interactions and impressions of those involved. Roberts has a keen eyre for the telling anecdote, and he gives a vivid sense of the extreme strains generated by a struggle fought not in the field but in committee rooms and offices.’
Mark Mazower, The Guardian

‘Through this thicket of personal, professional and national prejudices, Andrew Roberts charts a course at once judicious and convincing. On the vexed question of the timing of the Second Front he is crystal-clear: a “sacrificial” operation in north-west France in 1942 would have been just that, while the largest conceivable operation in 1943 would have been entirely inadequate to the task. The brute fact is that a Second Front worthy of the name was impossible to execute before 1944, and even then was little more than a sideshow in Soviet terms. Pirandello, con brio, with a dash of humility, is a tall order, but Andrew Roberts pulls it off.’
Alex Danchev, Times Literary Supplement

‘Andrew Roberts’ Masters and Commanders is an enthralling analysis of the relationship between Roosevelt, Churchill, Marshall and Alanbrooke. Roberts tells the story with consummate mastery of his sources and all the vigour and enthusiasm which makes his writing such a joy to read.’
Philip Ziegler, Books of the Year in The Spectator

Michael Burleigh chose Masters and Commanders as his Book of the Year in the Evening Standard

‘The author has crafted a masterly and fresh interpretation of the grand strategy of World War II. Roberts’s pen-portraits, with their wealth of amusing and often acerbic anecdotes, reveal the evolution of that strategy by the master statesmen.’
John Crossland, Daily Mail

‘Mr Roberts is a Tory historian of acute yet sympathetic judgement, and this is an account of the grand and noble enterprise that was the Anglo-American alliance – the moral-historical underpinning of today’s special relationship – is told with insight and clarity. It is a book that each of the masters and commanders would, I suspect, acknowledge as accurate and fair. And they would surely applaud the author’s vigorous prose.’
Allan Mallinson, Country Life

‘Andrew Roberts has breathed new life into a complex set of relationships which was absolutely crucial for the success of Allied strategy. This is a superb book.’
Keith Simpson MP, Total Politics

‘The strength of Masters and Commanders lies in the power of the narrative and the fascinating detail used to construct it. Roberts has exploited a rich mine of private papers to fill in missing parts of the story, and although there is little new to be learned about the long strategic arguments between the British and the Americans over the best way to defeat Hitler, there is a lot to learn about the way that argument took place. Roberts has a shrewd grasp of the ins and outs of decision making.’
Prof Richard Overy, Literary Review

‘Couched in elegant prose, this book is a masterpiece of robust historical analysis, steeped in scholarship and alive to every nuance of personality. Roberts re-evaluates each of the masters and commanders with scrupulous fairness.’
Christopher Silvester, Daily Express

‘Marshal Foch famously said that he had “less respect for Napoleon, now that I know what a coalition is”. The high quality of the leadership of the coalition Andrew Roberts so expertly describes was a decisive factor in their success.’
Conrad Black, Mail on Sunday

‘In Masters and Commanders, Roberts examines the Special Relationship during the Second World War and manages to convince us that, despite clashing egos and visions, this was a moment when everyone subscribed to the One for All, All for One mentality.’
Cristina Odone’s Books of the Year in the Sunday Telegraph.

‘The account of the war and its intrigues is fresh filled with new revelations and new analysis. It brings the fascinating process of decision-making to life. It shows how character is so important even in our modern times and how wars are really won and lost. It is both high scholarship and superb writing by a masterful analyst of power and war and it is also great fun - the narrative is gripping, the character-sketches delicious. And it shows the genius and flaws too of the great FDR.’
Simon Sebag Montefiore, The Daily Beast website

‘Strategy can be an arid, technical subject. Roberts, a d'Artagnan of the pen, turns it into a compelling, page-turning drama, enriched by colourful, indiscreet comments and glorious anecdotes culled from a vast array of archives on both sides of the Atlantic. Andrew Roberts is a titan among historians.’
Alistair Cooke, The Blue Blog

‘Andrew Roberts has a wonderful eye for historical detail. In his latest volume he adds humanity and drama to his tales of wartime alliance with intriguing incidental details. . The complexity of how the British and Americans managed to juggle their national desires with those of the common war effort is brilliantly and comprehensively described by Roberts. This book will surely become the standard work on the subject. First class.’
Tim Newark, Military Illustrated

‘The best book on power that I have read for a long time is Masters and Commanders by the British historian Andrew Roberts. … A riveting and beautifully written overview of how and why the Allies won the Second World War.’
Jonathan Aitken, The American Spectator Books of the Year

‘Roberts is the pre-eminent British historian of this generation, and in this book he draws on hitherto untapped sources to discover what Churchill, Roosevelt, Marshall and Brooke were up to in World War II. There is no greater story in 20th century history, and no-one has told it better than Andrew Roberts.’
Michael Barone, The American Spectator Books of the Year

‘I nominate Andrew Roberts’s Masters and Commanders. It utilizes newly opened archives and is a gripping read.’
Conrad Black, The American Spectator Books of the Year