Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Douglas MacArthur: American Warrior
    Douglas MacArthur: American Warrior
    Douglas MacArthur: American Warrior
    Audiobook39 hours

    Douglas MacArthur: American Warrior

    Written by Arthur Herman

    Narrated by Henry Strozier

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Douglas MacArthur was arguably the last American public figure to be worshipped unreservedly as a national hero, the last military figure to conjure up the romantic stirrings once evoked by George Armstrong Custer and Robert E. Lee. But he was also one of America's most divisive figures, a man whose entire career was steeped in controversy. Was he an avatar or an anachronism, a brilliant strategist or a vainglorious mountebank? Drawing on a wealth of new sources, Arthur Herman delivers a powerhouse biography that peels back the layers of myth-both good and bad-and exposes the marrow of the man beneath. MacArthur's life spans the emergence of the United States Army as a global fighting force. Its history is to a great degree his story. The son of a Civil War hero, he led American troops in three monumental conflicts-World War I, World War II, and the Korean War. Born four years after Little Big Horn, he died just as American forces began deploying in Vietnam. Herman's magisterial book spans the full arc of MacArthur's journey, from his elevation to major general at thirty-eight through his tenure as superintendent of West Point, field marshal of the Philippines, supreme ruler of postwar Japan, and beyond. More than any previous biographer, Herman shows how MacArthur's strategic vision helped shape several decades of U.S. foreign policy. Alone among his peers, he foresaw the shift away from Europe, becoming the prophet of America's destiny in the Pacific Rim. Here, too, is a vivid portrait of a man whose grandiose vision of his own destiny won him enemies as well as acolytes. MacArthur was one of the first military heroes to cultivate his own public persona-the swashbuckling commander outfitted with Ray-Ban sunglasses, riding crop, and corncob pipe. Repeatedly spared from being killed in battle-his soldiers nicknamed him "Bullet Proof"-he had a strong sense of divine mission. "Mac" was a man possessed, in the words of one of his contemporaries, of a "supreme and almost mystical faith that he could not fail." Yet when he did, it was on an epic scale. His willingness to defy both civilian and military authority was, Herman shows, a lifelong trait-and it would become his undoing. Tellingly, MacArthur once observed, "Sometimes it is the order one disobeys that makes one famous." To capture the life of such an outsize figure in one volume is no small achievement. With Douglas MacArthur, Arthur Herman has set a new standard for untangling the legacy of this American legend.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateJun 14, 2016
    ISBN9781501931079
    Douglas MacArthur: American Warrior
    Author

    Arthur Herman

    ARTHUR HERMAN is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and the author of nine books, including the New York Times bestseller How the Scots Invented the Modern World and Gandhi and Churchill, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He lives in Washington, DC.  

    More audiobooks from Arthur Herman

    Related to Douglas MacArthur

    Related audiobooks

    Biography & Memoir For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      A View Of Mount Suribachi

      Feb 20, 2020

      A View Of Mount Suribachi
      3 min read

    • Article

      A Darker Hour Yet

      Jul 25, 2023

      A Darker Hour Yet
      6 min read

    • Article

      War’s Endgame

      Apr 25, 2023

      War’s Endgame
      5 min read

    • Article

      Selfless Service

      Oct 11, 2022

      Selfless Service
      5 min read

    • Article

      Tecumseh vs. Harrison

      Jan 23, 2024

      Tecumseh vs. Harrison
      9 min read

    • Article

      Horror in Manila

      Sep 3, 2019

      Horror in Manila
      11 min read

    • Article

      General Grant’s Anaconda

      Dec 4, 2020

      General Grant’s Anaconda
      4 min read

    • Article

      Reviews Entrances And Exits

      May 7, 2019

      Reviews Entrances And Exits
      7 min read

    • Article

      Portents

      Nov 7, 2017

      Portents
      6 min read

    • Article

      Books In Brief

      Apr 25, 2019

      Books In Brief
      5 min read

    • Article

      Becoming Rome

      Sep 4, 2018

      Becoming Rome
      6 min read

    • Article

      Besieged

      Aug 25, 2020

      Besieged
      10 min read

    • Article

      The Army’s Pacific

      Oct 29, 2019

      The Army’s Pacific
      5 min read

    • Article

      Reviews Fault Lines

      Nov 5, 2019

      Reviews Fault Lines
      4 min read

    • Article

      Complex Napoleon

      Jul 14, 2020

      Complex Napoleon
      8 min read

    • Article

      A Risky Meeting

      Aug 3, 2021

      A Risky Meeting
      4 min read

    • Article

      Why Fight In Korea?

      Feb 24, 2022

      Why did war erupt on the Korean Peninsula in 1950? Nobody was satisfied with the division of Korea after World War II – not the Americans, the Soviets, the Chinese, or Koreans themselves. The Japanese had colonised and exploited Korea ruthlessly for

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Great Stewardess Rebellion

      Jul 12, 2022

      The Great Stewardess Rebellion
      9 min read

    • Article

      The Iron Commander

      Jan 10, 2023

      The Iron Commander
      5 min read

    • Article

      Resisting Nazism

      Dec 24, 2019

      Resisting Nazism
      8 min read

    • Article

      Unlikely American Hero

      Oct 20, 2020

      Unlikely American Hero
      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Douglas MacArthur

    4.5/5

    14 ratings3 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      An absolutely brilliant biography of MacArthur that serves as a useful corrective to decades of critical narratives.
    • 3/5
      This biography I happened to pick up and as I got into it seemed familiar. In searching my books I discovered I had read a biography on the General years ago. Arthur Herman's offering is an in-depth and comprehensive look taking us through all aspects of this American icons life. Herman on balance takes a favorable view of MacArthur without crossing the line to hagiography.A most complex man,General MacArthur shaped our history and in a sense our future unlike few that have taken the world stage. His life started and ended military and in service to what he loved, his country and the army. He came across to me as a mix between a genuine genius and a crackpot. And I don't say that with any disrespect to the man. His military and geo-political insights I thought were beyond challenge. His take on how the Pacific Rim would come to dominate our future has been spot on. His handling of the peace and reconstruction of Japan appeared to be brilliant. Wrapping his career in the Korean fiasco and his eventual dismissal some see as failure, but he may in fact have been right in seeking total victory as we still live with threat today over fifty years later.There is no doubt MacArthur let his ego overshadow his keen insights at times. Also his personal recklessness in facing death on the battlefield itself was truly remarkable but foolhardy. The book does much to shed light on that man, his character, and his legacy. It is a worthwhile read for anyone looking to grasp what we faced and what we may face particularly in the Pacific and the related military ramifications.
    • 5/5
      I didn't think it could get better than William Manchester's biography of Macarthur but Herman raises the bar. This may be the definitive biography of the general. Riveting. Compelling. Definitely worth a detour.