34 pages • 1 hour read
The Road to Character
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Chapter 5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary: “Self-Mastery”
Although George Catlett Marshall struggled with academics from his childhood and teenage years into his time at Virginia Military Institute (VMI), he was dedicated to serving every institution he was ever part of. He proved a reliable, and even exceptional team player while at VMI, often taking on menial tasks other students would not. While his service in WWI was outwardly unremarkable, his talent for exacting logistics and plan execution were noted and lauded to the point that his domestic roles within the US Government during WWII were indispensable to the US Presidents he served under. As Secretary of State, he formulated and enacted the European Recovery Plan—which was so effective and necessary that history has given it his name, the Marshall Plan. His flawless self-control and institutionally-minded loyalty ensured that he was loved by all he served and worked with during his long military career.
Chapter 5 Analysis
Although Marshall was known for being something of an unruly child and teenager, he proved during his time at VMI that he could master his unruliness to serve an institution toward which he felt great loyalty and devotion. The self-mastery he cultivated during his college education and early military training served him well during wartime service, ensuring that he could take on any logistical challenge set before him with efficiency and precision. His service to the US Government and to the war-torn countries of Europe following WWII stand as a testament to his selfless and disciplined service in times of great need. Brooks observes, “People who possess an institutional mindset, as Marshall did, have a very different mentality, which begins with a different historical consciousness. In this mindset, the primary reality is society, which is a collection of institutions that have existed over time and transcend generations” (115).
Like Perkins and Day before him in the sequence of real-life examples Brooks uses to demonstrate each thematic quality, Marshall’s memory is so revered as to necessitate the events of his life in painstaking detail. While the progression of his service and his successes is slower to build from a narrative standpoint, the career responsibilities he took on during his middle to later years were largely roles that no one else wished to serve in—least of all him, in some cases. His tenacity and dedication seem superhuman at times, as do the love and patience he bore family and colleagues.
Marshall’s military and political career took him around the globe, with a focus on his reconstruction of war-torn post-WWII Europe and his service as the US Ambassador to China from 1945-1946. For a man with such humble beginnings and significant academic struggles to become one of the most trusted servants of the US Government in a pinch speaks volumes to his versatility. He served his country in locations around the globe, and his service in each instance was so reliable, efficient, and dedicated that leaders from around the globe paid genuine respects at his death.
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