Barry Machado is professor emeritus of history at Washington and Lee University, and author of the book In Search of a Usable Past: The Marshall Plan and Postwar Reconstruction (2007, Marshall Foundation, Lexington).
With new evidence, along with fresh perspectives, David L. Roll has revised and refined aspects of conventional wisdom. First, Marshall’s leadership is more inspired than previously acknowledged. Second, in his professional life he is generally more assertive and self-assured, more likely to be uncompromising, and at times even less humble.
Absent the convention of an “Introduction,” the reader of Debi and Irwin Unger’s new biography of George C. Marshall must get well along in the narrative before its purpose is grasped. From then on, clarity about what the authors are about intensifies: an attempted take-down of the historical reputation of the man generally regarded as America’s finest public servant in the 20th century.