"The Mask of Command" explores generals: who they are, what they do, and how they influence the world we live in. Through portraits of four generals - the archetypal hero Alexander the Great, the anti-hero Wellington, the non-heroic Ulysses S. Grant, and the pseudo-heroic Hitler - John Keegan presents the view that the heroic figure in war is inextricably linked to the political necessity of the time and place. He shows how the role of the general changes with the morality of the society that creates him and concludes that there is no room for heroism in a nuclear world. "The Mask of Command" is a complementary work to John Keegan's classic study of the individual soldier, "The Face of Battle": together they form a masterpiece of military and human history.