Our vision of Patton - one of America's most charismatic and successful generals - has largely been formed by the popular film Patton released in 1970. Patton is portrayed as a swashbuckling, brash, profane, impetuous soldier who wore ivory-handled revolvers into battle and slapped hospitalized soldiers around the face. Behind this facade lay a very different, contradictory personality, an intensely private man, a devoted student of history, a writer of poetry, a man very unsure about his own abilities, humble, who could burst into tears quite unexpectedly. He trained himself for greatness with a determination matched, perhaps, by no other general in the 20th century. With access to Patton's private and public papers, Carlo D'este attempts to reveal the real Patton.