This is without question one of the most important biographical works of a key figure of America's efforts in World War II. Though written in the third person by McGeorge Bundy, it is in fact autobiographical -- "the record of Mr. Stimson's public life as he himself sees it" -- and rests on Mr. Stimson's diary and other papers, and recollections. It embraces a span and diversity of patriotic service unique in American history, culminating in the Secretaryship of War from 1940 to 1945 (to which period the last half of the book is devoted). A reading of these pages will reveal the character of the man whose honesty, intelligence and faithfulness to duty have made him our Elder Statesman.