A lesson learned from THE STRATEGISTS, by Phillips O'Brien
In a great crisis, flexibility and being able to accept reality are everything. In our tech-oriented world where people believe whatever story has been liked and shared the most, there seems to be a growing belief that reality really can be whatever we wish it to be. This is a dangerous ignoring of the longstanding historical record, which suggests that eventually actual reality will always come crashing in around you, often in a sudden and destructive fashion. The most spectacular global crisis in history was full of such examples, and these are chronicled in Phillips O’Brien’s excellent new book The Strategists , which chronicles the background and military strategies of World War II’s titans—FDR, Churchill, Stalin, Hitler, and Mussolini. All of these men, to one degree or another, were shaped by the trauma of World War I, and all took away very different lessons from their experiences—some of which helped the...