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In culmination of his four-year lecture series, historian Andrew Roberts reviews what we’ve learned about the secrets of war leadership exhibited by Napoleon Bonaparte, Winston Churchill, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Charles de Gaulle, Horatio Nelson, Margaret Thatcher, and George Marshall. Is war leadership unique, or might these leaders have something in common, techniques that can be transferred from age to age, country to country, war to war?

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Admiral Lord Nelson was arguably Britain’s greatest naval hero and the victor of many battles against Napoleonic France—especially that of Trafalgar, in which he died in October 1805. His tactic of constant aggression, regardless of numbers, was as controversial as his love life with the beautiful, married Emma, Lady Hamilton. Historian Andrew Roberts explores Horatio Nelson’s life and leadership.

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General Dwight D. Eisenhower seemed an unlikely candidate to be the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe in 1944–45 since he had never commanded troops in combat, but he proved adept at delivering the strategy that won the war in the West. How he did is examined by acclaimed historian Andrew Roberts.

Andrew Roberts, visiting professor in the War Studies Department at King’s College, London, is the author of Masters and Commanders: How Four Titans Won the War in the West, 1941–1945.

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When General George C. Marshall became U.S. Army Chief of Staff on September 1, 1939—the same day that Adolf Hitler invaded Poland—the American Army numbered 190,000 and was utterly untested. By the war’s end it numbered 8.2 million and was victorious on every front. Historian Andrew Roberts examines Marshall’s central role in this transformation and in developing U.S. strategy to defeat the Axis.

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Much is known about the Great Terror unleashed on ordinary Russians by Joseph Stalin in the years before the outbreak of the Second World War, but much less studied are his leadership style and his techniques after Nazi Germany invaded the U.S.S.R. Award-winning historian Andrew Roberts investigates how the Soviet dictator fought the war.

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In June 1940, General Charles de Gaulle showed that sublime heroism was possible even during the chaos surrounding the Fall of France. Andrew Roberts discusses de Gaulle’s leadership, showing how his response to that catastrophe was always admired by Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt, even while they clashed with his rebarbative personality.

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Why, after starting World War II with a string of Blitzkrieg victories hardly seen before in the history of warfare, did Adolf Hitler make the series of disastrous blunders that led him to losing it? In the first talk in a series examining the governing forces behind World War II, award-winning historian Andrew Roberts surveys the evolving military priorities of the most evil man who ever lived.

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Margaret Thatcher was the first female prime minister of Great Britain, but with the start of the Falklands War in April 1982 she was also the first British prime minister to take her country to war since Korea in the 1950s. The leadership she showed during that painful but ultimately successful engagement had a huge impact upon the rest of her career. Andrew Roberts, who knew Lady Thatcher well, explores the secrets of her leadership style.

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Fifty years after his death in January 1965, there are still few who can compare to Winston Churchill for inspiring leadership, resolution in adversity, and scintillating wit. Andrew Roberts explores Churchill’s use of oratory to stiffen the British resolve to fight on in 1940 and 1941, and up to ultimate victory in 1945.

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Napoleon Bonaparte’s victories at Austerlitz, Jena, and Friedland helped forge his status as a military genius and inspiring leader, yet he has also been likened to Adolf Hitler. After the publication of 33,000 of Napoleon’s letters, award-winning historian Andrew Roberts radically transforms our understanding of the character and motivation behind one of the greatest soldier-statesmen of all time.