General Patton was a Four Star General with the United States Army, serving from 1909 to 1945. General Patton was a key figure in the United States military workings in Europe during World War II. He commanded several different divisions throughout his career, though his most important work was done commanding forces in the European Theatre. He was a very interesting character, and I thought perhaps some of his personality traits were exaggerations in other books that I have read, but having read his own personal words...they were not exaggerations. He could not stand cowardice, and he did not believe in post traumatic stress or "battle fatigue", leading him to slap a couple of his soldiers and order them back to the front. He was also quite racist, mostly against black people. (This was probably due to his upbringing, as we often absorb our attitudes from family members as children. That does not make it right, and he could have changed his outlook at any point and chose not to.) He was also very anti-Semitic, which I found to be pretty abhorrent. Some of the comments he made about people who had been displaced or released from camps were disgusting and obtuse, as though they had not been incarcerated in filthy conditions and worked and starved to the bone. He admired the fight of Russian soldiers, but not Russians in general. His thoughts on commanding and war tactics were really interesting to my history major heart, so I appreciated that he took the time to write about his experiences in war and get that put out before his "accident" that took his life.

I would suggest this book for anyone who is interested in World War II history or famous generals, but I would tell you to take some of the statements made by General Patton with a grain of salt. He was a fairly crass fellow in some regards.