ON ACTIVE SERVICE IN PEACE AND WAR - STIMSON IN SOUTH AFRICA

Hardcover with dust jacket and 421 pages in good pages. R46 postage in SA.   I knew almost nothing about Stimson when I started this book, and was quite curious to learn just what the Secretary of War contributed to the effort to win WWII. But I enjoyed the first half of the book more than the part about the war. Stimson's career was quite interesting - US Attorney in NY prosecuting anti-trust cases against the sugar companies, candidate for governor of NY, Secretary of War under Taft, Secretary of State under Hoover, governor general of the Philippines, Secretary of War during World War II. Nominally written by Bundy, it is very much Stimson's autobiography. There is no bibliography, no notes. The sources are primarily Stimson's diary and papers, and of course the 18 months of discussions Bundy and Stimson had while working together on the book.