Lejeune: A Marine's Life, 1867-1942

by Merrill L. Bartlett

A hard-hitting biography of the thirteenth commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps.

Genres: World War I, Biography

Hardcover

First published November 1, 1991

Reviews

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a military biography of Marine General John Archer Lejuene. It brings to light his maneuvering in the military political system to obtain promotions and the office of commandant of the Corps. Much of thee book is devoted to World War I. This is an informative read. I finished it on the Marine Corps birthday.

[Patrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

An adequate biography on the Commandant who led the Marine Corps as it transitioned from a small force of men into the elite amphbious warfare force that served the nation in World War II Pacific. This biography is particularly good in covering Lejeune's time as the leader of the Marines in World War I Europe under Pershing and his brief stint as an Army Division commander during that war.

However, my edition contained numerous spelling errors, and I felt the book was poorly written. I found that the author did a poor job of identifying important people throughout the text, and that events and dates were sometime out of sequence. Many of the same ideas were repeated from paragraph to paragraph, which was maddening. My annotation upon finishing the books reads: "Was this a first draft?? Why didn't the University of South Carolina [the original publisher] give him an editor?!?"

[Grahambo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Completely concur with the good reads review. Worth the time.