War is rarely a predictable enterprise -- it is a mess of luck, chance, and incalculable variables. Sudden, sharp changes in fortune can reverse the course of war. These intractable circumstances are sometimes mastered by leaders of genius -- asked at the eleventh hour to save a hopeless conflict, created by others, often unpopular with politics and the public. These savior generals often come from outside the established power structure, employ radical strategies, and flame out quickly. Their careers often end in controversy. But their dramatic feats of leadership are vital slices of history -- not merely as stirring military narrative, but as lessons on the dynamic nature of consensus, leadership, and destiny. The five generals profiled here -- Themistocles, Belisarius, William Tecumseh Sherman, Matthew Ridgway, and David Petraeus -- single-handedly saved their nations from defeat in war.

General collection. Includes maps of: Battle of Salamis; Belisarius at the Battle of Dara; Belisarius in Africa; Sherman's March to Atlanta and to the Sea; Koean Peninsula; Iraq.

Athens is burning: Themistocles at Salamis-September 480 B.C. -- Byzantium at the brink: the fireman Flavius Belisarius-A.D. 527-559 -- "Atlanta is ours and fairly won": William Tecumseh Sherman's gift to Abraham Lincoln-summer 1864 -- 100 days in Korea: Matthew Ridgway takes over-winter 1950-51 -- Iraq is "lost": David Petraeus and the surge in Iraq-January 2007-May 2008.