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Master of War

The Life of General George H. Thomas

About The Book

• A first-rate historian: Benson Bobrick is the author of several celebrated books, including The Fated Sky and Testament . His work has been hailed as “Lucid and vivid” by The New Yorker , “elegant” by The Washington Post Book World , and “engrossing…detailed and gripping” by the Chicago Tribune . And The New York Times Book Review says, “Bobrick is perhaps the most interesting historian writing in America today.”.

• A fascinating biography of an underappreciated American hero: George H. Thomas was, Bobrick argues, the greatest general of the Civil War. Known as the Rock of Chickamauga, Thomas was regarded by his contemporaries as the equal of Grant and Sherman. In the entire Civil War, he never lost a battle or a movement, and he was the only Union commander to destroy two Confederate armies in the field. But Thomas never wrote a memoir and history neglected him. Until now. .

• Powerfully told and grippingly rendered: With his characteristic flair for drama and fast-paced writing, Bobrick takes readers onto the battlefields, into the smoke of gunpowder and the stench of bodies. From the parade grounds of West Point to the bloody Battle of Chattanooga, Bobrick masterfully renders every detail, right down to the buckles on Thomas’s boots and the courage in his heart. Backed by scholarly research, this informed and vivid biography at last brings Thomas’s tale to readers everywhere..

About The Author

Photograph by Ezra Distler

Benson Bobrick earned his doctorate from Columbia University and is the author of several critically acclaimed works, including Wide as the Waters: The Story of the English Bible and the Revolution It Inspired and Angel in the Whirlwind: The Triumph of the American Revolution. In 2002 he received the Literature Award of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. He and his wife, Hilary, live in Vermont.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster (February 9, 2010)
  • Length: 432 pages
  • ISBN13: 9780743290265

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Raves and Reviews

"With his customary flair and keen insights, Benson Bobrick has written yet another splendid book. Master of War indispensably belongs on your Civil War bookshelf, right next to biographies of Lee, Grant, Sherman, and Stuart. Bravo!" -- Jay Winik, author of April 1865: The Month That Saved America and The Great Upheaval: America and the Birth of the Modern World

"A strong portrait of an undervalued general." -- Kirkus Reviews

"At last, Union General George Thomas has received the biography that he has deserved for more than a century. Overshadowed by fellow commanders such as Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan, Thomas was one of the North's finest generals during the Civil War. In Master of War, Benson Bobrick gives us a finely written and researched study on a soldier whose record rivals that of his more famous comrades. This book was long overdue." -- Jeffry D. Wert, author of Cavalryman of the Lost Cause

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