Patton's Shadow
Patton's Shadow
The Making of a Hero in Modern Memory
An engrossing account of the myth and legend of George S. Patton and what his reputation illuminates about American culture and hero worship
Patton’s Shadow by Nathan C. Jones, a leading authority on George S. Patton, offers a definitive account of the creation of the Patton legend and what it illuminates about American culture and the worship of heroes. Jones traces how the persona of Patton, a brash and brilliant general in the European theater of World War II, transcended the individual man and became a cultural icon and byword for triumphal American might.
Patton was a hero lionized and celebrated in his own time. Patton as well as the US Army cultivated his persona during and after the war. His image was used to promote patriotism, commercial goods, and military recruitment. The 1970 Academy Award–winning film starring George C. Scott cemented his iconic image for millions of Americans, further embellishing Patton’s persona and introducing him to entirely new generations of young Americans.
Patton’s Shadow is an intellectually omnivorous tour de force that draws on ideas about heroes from sources as timeless as ancient mythology and as contemporary as Abraham Maslow, Max Weber, and Carl Jung. Jones artfully locates the honored altar that heroes occupy in the human heart and then answers insightful questions about what America’s embrace of Patton in particular as a military hero illuminates about the United States, about Patton’s generation, and about our own.
Jones’s engrossing work will fascinate readers interested in American history, military history, and the psychology of heroism.
An expertly written and deeply researched study of one way Americans and others chose to understand a bloody world war.’
—John Bodnar, author of Divided by Terror: American Patriotism after 9/11
NATHAN C. JONES served as director, interim director, and curator at The General George Patton Museum at Fort Knox, Kentucky from 2010–2022. He is coauthor of Selecting and Training Army Officers for World War I and Post War Years 1900–1935.
.List of Illustrations
Preface
Introduction
1. A Living Legend
2. Hell for Leather
3. I Fought with Patton
4. Patton’s Inner Circle
5. A Household Name
6. A Collective Memory
7. Shaping the Narrative
8. Correcting the Narrative
9. Distorting the Narrative
10. A Public Memory
11. Patton in Performative Ritual
12. Patton in Popular and Material Culture
13. The Patton Legacy
14. Memory and Identity
Conclusion: In Need of a Hero
Notes
Bibliography
Index
