Moment of Battle The Twenty Clashes That Changed the World

Name: Moment of Battle The Twenty Clashes That Changed the World
Price: 5.19 USD
Availability: InStock
ISBN: 9780345526977

ISBN-10: 034552697X

ISBN-13: 9780345526977

Edition: 2013

Authors: Jim Lacey, Williamson Murray

List price: $35.00

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Description:

Two modern masters of military history make their case to name the twenty most pivotal battles of all time, in a riveting trip through the ages to those moments when the fate of the world hung in the balance. In the grand tradition of Edward Creasy’s classic Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World, James Lacey and Williamson Murray spotlight engagements that changed the course of civilization. Much more than simply a survey of armed conflict through the centuries, Moment of Battle brings these conflicts and their eras to vivid life in gripping narrative accounts that detail the cultural imperatives that led inexorably to the battlefield, the experiences of the common soldiers who fought and… died, and the legendary commanders and statesmen who matched wits, will, and nerve for the highest possible stakes. From the great clashes of antiquity to the high-tech wars of the twenty-first century, here are the stories of the twenty most consequential battles ever fought, including • Marathon, where Greece’s “greatest generation” repelled Persian forces three times their numbers—and saved Western civilization from being extinguished in its infancy• Adrianople, the death blow to a disintegrating Roman Empire, dealt by a wave of invading Goths• Trafalgar, the epic naval victory that decided the Napoleonic Wars and cemented a century of British supremacy over the globe• Saratoga, where militias from across the colonies united for the first truly American victory and ensured the ultimate triumph of the Revolution• Midway, the ferocious sea battle that broke the back of the Japanese navy and helped seal the outcome of World War II in the Pacific• Dien Bien Phu, the climactic confrontation between French imperial troops and Viet Minh rebels that set the stage for American intervention in Vietnam and marked the rise of a new era of insurgent warfare• Operation Peach, the 2003 mission to secure a critical bridge over the Euphrates River that represented a potentially devastating trap for American forces but would open the way to Baghdad Historians and armchair generals will argue forever about which battles have had the most direct impact on history. But there can be no doubt that these twenty are among the fraction that set mankind on new trajectories. Each of these epochal campaigns is examined in its full historical, strategic, and tactical context—complete with edge-of-your-seat you-are-there battle re-creations. With an eye for the small detail as well as the bigger picture, Lacey and Murray identify the elements that bind these battles together: the key decisions, critical mistakes, and moments of crisis on which the fates of entire civilizations depended. Some battles merely leave a field littered with the bodies of the fallen. Others transform the map of the entire world. Moment of Battle is history written with the immediacy of today’s news, a magisterial tour d’horizon that refreshes our understanding of those critical turning points where the future was decided.

Book details

List price: $35.00
Copyright year: 2013
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Publication date: 5/21/2013
Binding: Hardcover
Pages: 496
Size: 6.75" wide x 9.75" long x 1.50" tall
Weight: 1.848
Language: English

Williamson Murray is Senior Fellow at the Institute for Defense Analysis, Washington, D.C.



Introduction


Marathon: Athens Saves Western Civilization (490 b.c.)


Gaugamela: Alexander Creates a New World (311 b.c.)


Zama: An Empire in the Balance (202 b.c.)


Teutoburger Wald: The Division of Europe (a.d. 9)


Adrianople: The End of Roman Supremacy (a.d. 378)


Yarmuk: The Islamic Conquest Begins (636)


Hastings: The Remaking of Europe (1066)


The Spanish Armada: Miracle at Sea (1588)


Breitenfeld: The Creation of Modern War (1631)


Annus Mirabilis: The Rise of British Supremacy (1759)


Saratoga: The Victory of Amateurs (1777)


Trafalgar: Napoleon's Plans Thwarted (1805)


Vicksburg: Breaking the Confederacy (1863)


The Marne: The End of Old Europe (1914)


The Battle of Britain: The Nazis Stopped (1940)


Midway: Imperial Japan Stopped (1942)


Kursk: The End of the Drang Nach Osten (1943)


Normandy: The Death Knell for Nazi Germany (1944)


Dien Bien Phu: Imperialism Defeated (1954)


Objective Peach: The Drive for Baghdad (2003)


Acknowledgments


Notes


Index