Book Review: Macarthur: America’s General

***** (3 out of 5)

Biographies, I imagine, are difficult to write. On the one hand you have to ensure that your biography is historically accurate and relevant, and on the other, you have to ensure that your biography is engaging and worthwhile to read. While some famous historical figures had mostly un-inspiring lives and thus make their biographers task that much more difficult, some people’s lives are so chock full of adventure and significance that one would think it impossible to write anything less than a riveting biography on them.

Douglas MacArthur is one of those fascinating persons who fall into the latter category. After graduating from West Point, MacArthur served with the United States Army in the Philippines and Mexico before being shipped off to Europe as the Chief-of-Staff to Major General Mann, commander of the 42^nd Division, one of the American divisions to fight in World War I. During this time, MacArthur earned a reputation of being unbelievably courageous, a fearless leader, as well as being a bit of a maverick, characteristics which were to define his entire career. MacArthur went on to be the commander of the American forces in the Pacific during WW II, and his exploits during that war are stuff of legend. Macarthur was also the commander in chief of American forces in Korea, where his stubbornness towards his superiors resulted in his being stripped of his career. Clearly MacArthur is an interesting and controversial character; interesting both as a person and for his impact on history, and controversial for his inability or unwillingness to bend his will to conform to the opinions of others.

Given all of this, one would expect a biography of such a fascinating man to be a fascinating read. Unfortunately, Mitchell Yockelson’s Macarthur: America’s General falls short of this expectation. This is not to say that it is a bad book, but it definitely falls short of being a really good book. Given the potential offered by MacArthur’s life and personality, this is somewhat disappointing.

The book is certainly a good overview of the historical details of MacArthur’s life and what he did. This is also the books shortcoming – it reads, by and large, as an expanded encyclopedia entry. Dates, places, and events are thoroughly covered, but what is missing is a connection to the man himself. Yockelson obviously has a great deal of respect and enthusiasm for MacArthur, but unfortunately, it is difficult to catch his enthusiasm. While an overly biased biography can at least be engaging even if the scholarship is somewhat suspect as a result, one that merely recounts history and a few interesting anecdotes is pretty uninteresting. One might as well read the encyclopedia to get the facts and save $20.

For example, Yockelson recounts that MacArthur was not a fan of President Roosevelt’s political positions (pg. 114-115). Unfortunately, the discussion is pretty much left there, with no discussion of Macarthur’s own political philosophy. Yes, he was a Republican, but surely he was a Republican for ideological reasons. What was his political ideology? What motivated him? Yockelson never gets into that level of discussion, and as a result it is difficult to care about MacArthur. One does not come to love or hate Macarthur through this book; MacArthur simply was. This is truly unfortunate, given the fact that MacArthur was an incredibly polarizing figure during his own lifetime.

Certainly, the lack of detailed discussion is partly due to the small size of the book (216 pages). However, one wonders what point there is in such short biography in the age of the internet. This book does not offer any unique interpretations or previously unknown facets of MacArthur’s life, and for that reason I wonder why anyone would shell out $20 when most of the same information is available on Wikipedia.

If you can get your hands on this book for half-price, and have an afternoon to kill, by all means, get this book. But if you are looking for a truly memorable or scholarly work on MacArthur, look elsewhere. To use a culinary example, this book is like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich: Filling and utilitarian, but not memorable. I don’t regret reading this book, but only good or bad books are really memorable; and unfortunately this book is neither.

LegalStuff: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.