Summary

George Marshall grew up in Pennsylvania. His father was a successful businessman who worked in coal, but lost all his money in real estate. As a result, George grew up in poverty. He was given placement tests when he entered school, but was unable to answer the questions correctly and was humiliated in front of his father. He barely studied after that, and had awful grades.

He was admitted to and attended VMI. He showed up a week into his first semester due to illness, and he was made fun of and bullied by the other students at first. However, this did not last past a few weeks. The culture there was distinctly Southern and centered around chivalry, stoicism, and honor. The school gave him a number of heroes to model himself after and to aspire to be like. Marshall also learned to live...