Author or Editor: William Weir
Publisher: Book-mart Press
Published: 2001
Pages: 320
Any attempt to list the 50 most important battles in all history is necessarily subjective. To list them in order of importance is an even greater exercise of chutzpah. Nevertheless, people have been listing decisive battles since Sir Edward Creasy, a lawyer who taught history, a century-and-a-half ago. Other compilers include General J.F.C. Fuller, a professional soldier; Captain B.H. Liddell Hart, who was gassed and injured early in his career and had to leave the army—he then became a journalist, and Fletcher Pratt, who was a writer by trade. Each brings a distinctive flavor to the enterprise. Fuller is very strong on battles that were fought on land. He's less interested in sea power and far less interested in air power. Liddell Hart emphasizes his strategic theory—the superiority of the indirect approach. He, and to some extent Fuller, preaches the gospel of small, highly trained armies rather than the mass armies we've had in every major war since those of the French Revolution. Pratt's The Battles that Changed History has the distinct tang of salty air, although most of the early battles it covers were fought on land. Pratt also has the most openly Occidental orientation.
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