Chasing the Shadow: Mickey Marcus’s 200 Days of Destiny

The life of David ＂Mickey＂ Marcus has become the stuff of legends and myths (even fantasy), conspiracy, wild exaggeration, and untethered embellishment. The image of Marcus cast by the character portrayed by Kirk Douglas in the film version of his life still dominates most evocations of the man, for good or ill. And these days, reactions to the book or film rest mostly on the current headlines rather than the historical context of the struggle in which Marcus died, or the events that cast him as a real-life player in an event marked by destiny.

Chasing the Shadow: Mickey Marcus’s 200 Days of Destiny is the first comprehensive and balanced biography of David Daniel ＂Mickey＂ Marcus, a founder of American Civil Affairs and Military Government doctrine and practice and a seminal figure in early Israeli military history. Far from merely a tribute to Mickey Marcus’s legacy, Ossad’s work serves as a critical tool for understanding the realities of mid-20th-century warfare in a Postwar colonial struggle and the dynamics of U.S.-Israeli military and political relations in 1948, the critical year for Israel’s struggle for independence. Indeed, Chasing the Shadow is a valuable read for those interested in Middle East history, Jewish military history, and a fascinating character whose story is told in an engaging, informative, and insightful narrative.

Steven L. Ossad is a biographer, historian, and retired Wall Street technology analyst, and ’writer for hire’ focused on leadership and Operational level command in the U.S. military. He is the author of Omar Nelson Bradley: America’s GI General (University of Missouri Press, 2017), winner of the 2018 Society for Military History Distinguished Book Award, and with Don R. Marsh, Major General Maurice Rose: WWII’s Greatest Forgotten Commander (2003).