Patton: Blood, Guts, and Prayer
Written by Michael Keane
Narrated by Grover Gardner
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
Patton: Blood, Guts, and Prayer
“There is no question of personal courage in this war,” Colonel Patton’s commanding officer told him on the eve of battle in 1918. “It is a business proposition where every man must be in his place and performing his part.”No one in the history of warfare was less likely to follow that advice than George S. Patton Jr. His place was in front of his men, and he paid the price, when he lay bleeding to death in a bomb crater in France.
Patton’s survival that day at the end of World War I was nothing short of miraculous. It confirmed the powerful sense of destiny that guided him through three decades of war and made him a military legend—“Old Blood and Guts,” an impossible mixture of irascibility and courage, profanity and profound religious faith, tactical impulsiveness and strategic genius.
Blood and guts were indeed a large part of what made Patton Patton. Descended from an illustrious line of warriors, he was acutely conscious of the martial heritage in his blood. He met every challenge of his life with determination and guts. He demanded the same from his men, and he usually got it.But as Michael Keane shows in this masterly portrait, the foundation of Patton’s character was his vivid awareness of the presence and providence of God. Patton’s Christian faith was idiosyncratic, even unorthodox, but his habit of prayer was as simple, trusting, and constant as a monk’s.
A singular combination of virtues and flaws, Patton has been venerated and despised but rarely understood. In Patton: Blood, Guts, and Prayer, Michael Keane penetrates the fog of legend and reveals as compelling a human character as any in American history.
Michael Keane
Michael Keane is a Fellow of National Security at the Pacific Council on International Policy. He was embedded in Iraq with the US Army's 101st Airborne Division, under the command of Gen. David Petraeus, and in Kabul, Afghanistan at the headquarters of the ISAF Commander, Gen. Stanley McChrystal. Keane is a former Fellow of the US Department of Defense's National Security Education Project. He has apeared on CNN, CNBC, FoxNews and the History Channel and has been profiled in BusinessWeek magazine. Keane is also the author of The Night Santa Got Lost: How Norad Saved Christmas and the Dictionary of Modern Strategy and Tactics. He earned his JD from the University of Texas School of law, and MBA from the University of Chicago and a BA from the University of Southern California. He lives in Santa Monica, California.
Related to Patton
Related audiobooks
Command: George S. Patton Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Confederacy's Last Hurrah: Spring Hill, Franklin, and Nashville Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shiloh, 1862 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Patton: The Pursuit of Destiny Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5General Ike: A Personal Reminiscence Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, Part One Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The War: Stories of Life and Death from World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Odyssey of Echo Company: The 1968 Tet Offensive and the Epic Battle to Survive the Vietnam War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Parachute Infantry: An American Paratrooper's Memoir of D-Day and the Fall of the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Were Soldiers Once… and Young: Ia Drang – The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5American Heritage History of World War II Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Miracle at Midway Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Patton, Montgomery, Rommel: Masters of War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5D-Day: June 6, 1944 : The Climactic Battle of WWII Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5War as I Knew It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lee: A Biography Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Citizen Soldiers: The U S Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Citizen Soldiers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Rise to Greatness: Abraham Lincoln and America's Most Perilous Year Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Nimitz Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5William Tecumseh Sherman: In the Service of My Country: A Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Battle of the Somme: The History and Legacy of World War I’s Biggest Battle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne, from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Victors: Eisenhower and His Boys: The Men of World War II Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Three Days in January: Dwight Eisenhower's Final Mission Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Military Biographies For You
SEAL of God Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Seven Pillars of Wisdom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Clear Thinking: A Stealth Fighter Pilot's Timeless Rules for Making Tough Decisions Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Reaper: Autobiography of One of the Deadliest Special Ops Snipers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fearless: The Undaunted Courage and Ultimate Sacrifice of Navy SEAL Team SIX Operator Adam Brown Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Napoleon Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Killing Patton: The Strange Death of World War II's Most Audacious General Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Things I'll Never Forget: Memories of a Marine in Viet Nam Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Impossible Odds: The Kidnapping of Jessica Buchanan and Her Dramatic Rescue by SEAL Team Six Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5African Samurai: The True Story of Yasuke, a Legendary Black Warrior in Feudal Japan Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Dirty Tricks Department: Stanley Lovell, the OSS, and the Masterminds of World War II Secret Warfare Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Punisher: A SEAL Team THREE Sniper's True Account of the Battle of Ramadi Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Outlaw Platoon: Heroes, Renegades, Infidels, and the Brotherhood of War in Afghanistan Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Alexander the Great Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Be Free or Die: The Amazing Story of Robert Smalls' Escape from Slavery to Union Hero Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unbroken Bonds of Battle: A Modern Warriors Book of Heroism, Patriotism, and Friendship Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Scars and Stripes: An Unapologetically American Story of Fighting the Taliban, UFC Warriors, and Myself Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Here, Right Matters: An American Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Killing School: Inside the World's Deadliest Sniper Program Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Summary: Can't Hurt Me - Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds by David Goggins Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Greatest Beer Run Ever: A Memoir of Friendship, Loyalty, and War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Operator: Firing the Shots that Killed Osama bin Laden and My Years as a SEAL Team Warrior Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lee: A Biography Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for Patton
32 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I enjoyed this book.
It was not comprehensive, yet it was comprehensive enough give life to the subject.
It was not totally unbiased, but unbiased enough to suggest a portrait of the man, with the necessary darker and unflattering nuances, required for the feeling of a good sketch of Patton's character.2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Provided wonderful insights into Patton and his character. Well read.