It was a warm April in Pleasant Valley when Margaret Korda dropped her horsewhip while she was riding. Such a mild slip was easy to ignore, but when other troubling symptoms accumulated, she confided to her husband, “Michael, I think something serious is wrong with me.” Within a few rapid weeks, the fiercely independent, former fashion model was diagnosed with brain cancer, while Michael became her caregiver, deciphering bewildering medical reports and packing her beloved toiletries for the hospital. An operation performed by a renowned surgeon allowed Margaret to ride her favorite competition horse, Logan go Bragh, a few more times, but Margaret’s tumors quickly returned --- leaving her to grapple with the reality of impending death.

May 1940 was a month like no other. The superior German war machine blazed into France, as the Maginot Line, supposedly "as firmly fixed in place as the Pyramids," crumbled in days. With the fall of Holland and Belgium, the imminent fall of Paris, the British Army stranded at Dunkirk, and Neville Chamberlain’s government in political freefall, Winston Churchill became prime minister on this historical nadir of May 10, 1941. Britain, diplomatically isolated, was suddenly the only nation with the courage and the resolve to defy Hitler. Against this vast historical canvas, Michael Korda relates what happened and why.

Michael Korda paints a vivid and admiring portrait of Robert E. Lee as a brilliant general, devoted family man, and principled gentleman who disliked slavery and disagreed with secession, yet who refused command of the Union Army in 1861 because he could not "draw his sword" against his beloved Virginia. CLOUDS OF GLORY analyzes Lee's command during the Civil War and explores his failed strategy for winning the war.

In ULYSSES S. GRANT we see a life that unfolds like a true Horatio Alger story. Korda reveals how Grant's unwavering determination helped him overcome numerous obstacles and setbacks-from humble beginnings as the son of a tanner in Ohio, a lack of early success in the army, and assorted failed business ventures-to rise through the ranks of military leadership and into the presidency. But while the general's tenacity and steadfastness contributed to his success on the battlefield, Korda argues that those characteristics both aided and crippled Grant's effectiveness in the White House.