 During World War II, the German commander in North Africa, Erwin Rommel, was grudgingly nicknamed the "Desert Fox" by his British adversaries, as a tribute to his cunning and skill in operational art.The Italian sociologist and economist Vilfredo Pareto (1848–1923) in his "Trattato di Sociologia Generale" (1916) developed the concept of an elite social class, which he divided into cunning 'foxes' and violent 'lions'.In his view of society, the power constantly passes from the 'foxes' to the 'lions' and vice versa.