Best Defense
Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

As my big debut event in DC looms, a pattern emerges in reviews of the book

There’s a mega-event for my book Thursday night in DC. It is free, but to attend you should to register here. There will be a surprise guest. Meanwhile, more reviews of the book are pouring in. On the one side stand the unhappy generals. Retired Army Maj. Gen. Robert Scales doesn’t like it — he ...

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CNAS
CNAS

There's a mega-event for my book Thursday night in DC. It is free, but to attend you should to register here. There will be a surprise guest.

There’s a mega-event for my book Thursday night in DC. It is free, but to attend you should to register here. There will be a surprise guest.

Meanwhile, more reviews of the book are pouring in. On the one side stand the unhappy generals. Retired Army Maj. Gen. Robert Scales doesn’t like it — he calls it unfair. He tells me he thinks in his review in Foreign Affairs that he is defending the Army. Me, I think that he is defending today’s Army generals. Retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Perry Smith also posted a querulous review on Amazon.

Meanwhile, the best of our military historians are greeting the book positively. Here is a good review in Military History magazine by one of the grand old men of the field, Dennis Showalter. That comes on top of similar praise from three other big names in the field — Carlo D’Este, Hew Strachan and Brian Linn.

See a pattern here — generals vs. historians?

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1

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