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Master of War: The Life of General George H. Thomas by Benson Bobrick is a revelatory and dynamic biography of general George H. Thomas. Bobrick argues that he was the greatest and most successful general of the Civil War. Because Thomas didn't live to write his memoirs, his reputation has been largely shaped by others, most notably Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman, two generals with whom Thomas served and who, Bobrick says, diminished his successes in their favour in their own memoirs. As Bobrick shows in this brilliant biography, he was quick to analyze every situation and always knew what to do and when to do it. He was not colourful like Grant and Sherman, but he was widely admired by his peers, and some, such as Grant's favourite cavalry commander, General James H. Wilson, thought Thomas the peer of any general in either army. He was the only Union commander to destroy two Confederate armies in the field. Although historians of the Civil War have always regarded Thomas highly, he has never captured the public imagination, perhaps because he has lacked an outstanding biographer-until now. This informed, judicious, and lucid biography at last gives Thomas his due.