A History of War in 100 Battles by Richard Overy
Summary: Their
very names--Gettysburg, Waterloo, Stalingrad--evoke images of great triumph and
equally great suffering, moments when history seemed to hang in the balance.
Considered in relation to each other, such battles--and others of less
immediate renown--offer insight into the changing nature of armed combat,
advances in technology, shifts in strategy and thought, as well as altered
geopolitical landscapes. The most significant military engagements in history
define the very nature of war.
In his newest book, Richard Overy plumbs over 3,000 years of history, from the
Fall of Troy in 1200 BC to the Fall of Baghdad in 2003, to locate the 100
battles that he believes the most momentous. Arranged by themes such as
leadership, innovation, deception, and courage under fire, Overy presents
engaging essays on each battle that together provide a rich picture of how
combat has changed through the ages, as well as highlighting what has remained
consistent despite advances in technology.
The battles covered here offer a wide geographic sweep, from ancient Greece to
China, Constantinople to Moscow, North to South America, providing a picture of
the dominant empires across time and context for comparison between various
military cultures. From familiar engagements like Thermopylae (480 BC), Verdun
(1916), and the Tet Offensive (1968) to lesser-studied battles such as Zama
(202 BC), Arsuf (1191), and Navarino Bay (1827), Overy presents the key actors,
choices, and contingencies, focusing on those details--sometimes overlooked--that
decided the battle. The American victory at the Battle of Midway, for example,
was determined by only ten bombs. It was, as Wellington said of Waterloo, a
"near run thing."
Rather than focusing on the question of victory or defeat, Overy examines what
an engagement can tell us on a larger level about the history of warfare
itself. New weapons and tactics can have a sudden impact on the outcome of a
battle--but so too can leadership, or the effects of a clever deception, or raw
courage. Overy offers a deft and visually captivating look at the engagements
that have shaped the course of human history, and changed the face of warfare.
Angie's Comments: Great for readers interested in military
history! Instead of going from the first battle to the last, Overy divides the
battles into sections: Leadership, Against the Odds, Innovation, Deception,
Courage in the Face of Fire, and In the Nick of Time. He uses battles to
illustrate his point for each section. For me, that arrangement gave greater
meaning to each battle than a simple chronological arrangement would. However,
you do bounce back and forth between wars and time periods. There is a Western
bias to the battles chosen, likely because those are the battles that the
author learned about in his studies and those
are the ones for which there is more information.
Each battle has several pages
devoted to it, which is only enough to give an outline of the battle. If you
are interested in in-depth information on a specific battle, you will need to
find another resource. But for giving an overview of the military history and
overview of certain battles, this book is great.
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