First published 2012
Walter R. Borneman examines the careers of America's only four five-star admirals: William Leahy, Ernest King, Chester Nimitz, and William Halsey. These naval leaders guided the United States Navy through World War II and transformed America into the world's dominant maritime power. Borneman uses journals, ship logs, and primary documents to reconstruct their wartime leadership. He shows how these four men, despite personal rivalries and competing strategies, coordinated their efforts to defeat Axis naval forces. The book details their tactical innovations with submarines and aircraft carriers that changed naval combat forever. Borneman reveals the complex relationships between these commanders as they balanced friendship with professional competition. The admirals' combined leadership resulted in the complete destruction of enemy fleets and established American naval dominance that would shape the postwar world.
Genres: 20th-century, non-fiction, biography-memoir, military-history, naval-history, american-history
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: friendship, leadership
Setting: United States
Period: World War II
559 pages · Hardcover · Little Brown and Company