Great Battles: Decisive Conflicts That Have Shaped History

by Christer Jörgensen (Editor)

This book provides an accessible, highly-illustrated introduction to 30 of history's most famous battles, including Marathon, Hastings, Agincourt, Saratoga, Trafalgar, Waterloo, Gettysburg, the Somme, Stalingrad, D-Day, and many more. It includes full-color tactical maps that allow the reader to grasp at a glance the decisive moves of the battle. It features more than 250 color and black-and-white photographs and illustrations depicting the uniforms, tactics, and military technology of the era.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, War, Military History, Reference, Military Fiction, Ancient

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Christer Jörgensen graduated with a Ph.D from University College, London. An expert on military history, Christer has published various books on the history of warfare. He has previously contributed to Fighting Techniques of the Early Modern World and Battles that Changed Warfare.

Reviews

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ein spannender Überblick über eine fragwürdige Auswahl an Schlachten und Kriegen. Auf je acht Seiten wird je eine Auseinandersetzung beschrieben und bebildert - gut zum schnellen Nachlesen. Leider eine sehr eurozentristische Auswahl und Sicht. Es gibt sicherlich bedeutendere Schlachten, auch außerhalb von Europa.

[Makrand · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great Battles , as the name states has quite a lot of important battles that took place since humanity started recording battles.

Each chapter is based on a battle which describes the tactics, strategies and purpose in detail. It's like the perfect geeks encyclopaedia. However, the most i liked about the book is the visual representation of the battle. Not a hugely detailed one but it shows sequence of events which also serves as a way to skip the text and checkout the image incase you don't wish to read everything

It's a perfect coffee table book however what put me off were the font size. Most fonts are so low that it's almost a strain on the eyes. I wish it had a better font size with less content and i would have still read the whole thing.

[Hilmi Isa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buku ini membincangkan pertempuran-pertempuran decisive (penentu dan muktamad) yang membentuk sejarah dunia. Buku ini ditulis melalui beberapa penulis terpilih yang pakar terutamanya mengenai sejarah peperangan dan pertempuran,sama ada Sebelum Masihi (SM) atau Masihi (M). Terdapat 30 buah pertempuran yang dimuatkan di dalam buku ini. Kisah-kisah pertempuran ini dibahagikan kepada tiga bahagian iaitu:

A) The Age of the Sword (Zaman Pedang)
1) Marathon 490 SM
2) Salamis 480 SM
3) Gaugamela 331 SM
4) Cannae 216 SM
5) Alesia 52 SM
6) Adrianople 378 M
7) Tours/Poitiers 732 M
8) Hastings 1066 M
9) Hattin 1187 M
10) Tannenberg 1410 M
11) Agincourt 1415 M

B) The Age of Gunpowder (Zaman Ubat Bedil)
12) Constantinople 1453 M
13) Lepanto 1571 M
14) The Great Armada 1588 M
15) Lutzen 1632 M
16) Blenheim 1704 M
17) Saratoga 1777 M
18) Trafalgar 1805 M
19) Austerlitz 1805 M
20) Waterloo 1815 M

C) The Age of the Rifle (Zaman Raifal)
21) Antietam 1862 M
22) Gettysburg 1863 M
23) Verdun 1916 M
24) The Somme 1916 M
25) The Battle of Britain 1940 M
26) Stalingrad 1942 M
27) Midway 1942 M
28) Normandy 1944 M
29) The Tet Offensive 1968 M
30) Operation Iraqi Freedom 2003 M

Saya bersetuju dengan pilihan seperti yang disenaraikan di atas. Namun demikian,saya fikir terdapat gap atau ruang yang boleh diisi dengan pilihan pertempuran yang lebih sesuai dan penting,terutamanya dari sudut impaknya kepada sejarah. Sebagai contoh,Perang/Pertempuran Khandak (Parit) yang berlaku pada 627 M atau 5 Tahun Hijrah. Kesan dari pertempuran tersebut adalah Islam selamat daripada ancaman musuhnya dan merintis jalan kepada penyebaran Islam di Tanah Arab dan seterusnya kepada kawasan/wilayah yang menerima kedatangan Islam.

Tetapi,apakan daya. Buku ini ditulis oleh penulis-penulis yang berasal dari Barat. Malahan,saya merasakan,apabila menulis mengenai pertempuran yang melibatkan tentera Islam,terdapat unsur-unsur yang agak prejudis. Lihatlah pada artikel mengenai Constantinople dan Lepanto yang tedapat di dalam buku ini. Mungkin ada,terutamanya di kalangan orang Muslim,yang akan kurang bersetuju dengannya. Mungkin kita perlukan penulis yang menulis subjek yang sama dengan menggunakan perspektif atau kaca mata Islam untuk mencapai hasil karya ilmiah yang lebih baik dan saksama.

Walaupun begitu,secara keseluruhannya,saya berpuas hati dengan buku ini. Malahan,turut disediakan gambar (dalam bentuk lukisan atau foto),kotak informasi dan peta yang membantu pemahaman para pembaca. Artikel yang ditulis juga ringkas dan setiap artikel tidak melebihi lapan muka surat. Buku ini sesuai dibaca kepada mereka yang sukakan sejarah pertempuran dunia,tetapi,disampaikan secara ringkas dan menarik.

[Krista · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every man who comes to my house pulls this book off the shelf and is thoroughly absorbed. I am so far the only woman I know who is fascinated by it!

[Fadillah · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a great ride it has been with this particular book. It is very informative and highly illustrative to help the reader in imagining each battles in the book. The battles is divided into 3 parts which are the age of sword, the age of gunpowder and the age of rifle. Based on this distinctive part, it was arranged chronologically. I was so absorbed in reading this because it has a lot of pictures, facts and side notes too. Yes, there are some errors (more like biases) but hey, there are always 2 sides in the story. I'm planning to read it again soon. I don't think it's comprises all the battles in the history but it's a great start to understand and follow through some of the famous battles like Salamis, Constantinople and Gettysburg.

[Christer Jorgensen]

Good Evening all
I am the Editor of the book and I found it interesting that a Turkish gent found my portrayal of Sultan Mehmed II Fetih unflattering. Dean commented back that it was too bad this Nurul did not like the facts that Mehmed was murderous and cruel. I could not have put it better myself. Fetih was one of the most vicious Ottoman Sultans and his conquest of Constantinople was both brutal and bloody, like much of Turkey’s subsequent history. Nurul should not forget the massacres of the Armenians during WWI and the present dictator of Tuerkey is much in the same mould as Fetih.
Yours truly,
Dr Christer Jorgensen

[Nurul · Rating 1 out of 5]

This books features many battles and I read the battle that I know first : The Constantinople - Mehmet II (Fetih). There are factual errors as well as biased history portraying Mehmet as a cruel, arrogant leader. The book does not cited where it took all the sources from, leaving me doubtful of the rest of the battles and trashed this book without second glance.

[Duncan Prior · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great Battles, subtitle "decisive" makes me think about the selection of battles based on the extent of decisiveness. Surely that word must refer to the degree to which the conflict brought a large-scale, pivotal and irrevocable change in regional or global history?
"Great" on the other hand could simply refer to the scale of fighting (usually representative of a large-scale war), skill of one or more commanders, or the passing of the battle into the folklore of one of the participants. These are not necessarily decisive. A middle ground is those that saw a significant change in military technology or tactics that were then adopted widely. A fourth category was ones that symbolic - inevitable but marking the end of an era.

So decisive: I would suggest Manzikert, Ain Jalut, first battle of Panipat, Bouvines, fall of Tenochtitlan. Possibly Kosovo (1389), Sedan (possibly).

Marathon - no - great only in the sense of folklore. Salamis - yes. Gaugamela - not sure. Canne - no (see below), Alesia - yes, Adrianople - yes. Tours - for sure, Hastings yes (as it moved England into France's orbit and set the trend for 700 years), Tannenberg - not sure.

Hattin I would remove as, to me, it was inevitable that the crusade states would fall (long supply lines etc). Agincourt because it did not turn the course of the war (which the larger country won) but simply passed into the forelore of one of the protaganists. Constantinople (symbolic only). Lepanto - yes. Armada - probably yes, although the Spanish plan was so complex and brittle it was unlikely to succeed. Lutzen (hard to argue this was decisive in the 30 Year War and besides was this really a decisive war, or simply horrific and long?).
Blenheim clearly qualifies on the skilful category and perhaps decisive if it ended Louis XVI plans for hegemony (not sure as the war carried on for another 9 or 10 years). Saratoga is a yes.
Austerlitz I would remove and replace with Leipzig. Waterloo not sure. The problem with Napoleon's victories is they were skilful and to some extent influential but ultimately he lost the war. The same argument applies to Hannibal
Not sure about the American Civil War. To me, the key one would be the one that committed the North to the full defeat of the South, rather than a compromise. Once committed and with suitable military leadership (the lack of which dogged them in the early year or so), it was inevitable they would prevail because of the comparative scale of industrial output and available manpower.
First world war - the decisive battles were First Marne, Jutland (in a strange way) and Amiens / 100 Days. Somme and Verdun were representative but not decisive.
Second world war - hard to argue against the inclusion of Stalingrad and Midway (incredibly decisive), but I am not sure about Battle of Britain. Possibly a greater argument for the Battle of France because this tipped Hitler's self-confidence into hubris.
Not sure about the Tet offensive as don't know about it but Iraqi Freedom is a clear "no chance" on any category!

This book got me thinking and I would like to thank Christer Jorgensen and his team. Two minor points - one or two of the numbers were doubtful (such as the number of Swedes who landed with Gustavus A in 1630) and left and right were muddled up when referring to the battlefield in a few cases I think.

[Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book provides a great overview of the battles that shaped human history. This is actually a great reference for further reading, whether a Wikipedia page or a novel dedicated to one of the battles described. Plus I actually learned a few things, such as the ultimate reason that Constantinople fell.

[Samuel Saul Richardson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly not that great. Though there definitely were some battles that changed the course of history, this entire book was just Europe and the United States which isn't very historically accurate if you're covering all of History like they claim. Frankly it also wasn't that enjoyable to read either.

Another waiting room style book.

#SelfTaughtHistory

[Kirby Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This offers a nice roundup of important battles from history, with impressive graphics, illustrations, and photos. On the negative side, I was surprised by the number of typographical errors in the text.

[Anthony Carrillo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I though the book was pretty good, and glad that it focused on great battles. I did think they missed some very historic battles, like the battle of Jutland. Otherwise, pretty solid book.

[Biminator · Rating 5 out of 5]

สนุกและเพลินมากสำหรับคนชอบประวัติศาสตร์สงคราม

[Amy]

Sure, it reads like a historyy text book...but each decisive battle is explained in a clear & concise manner. I haven't found myself getting bored while reading it. The artwork selected to represent each battle is awesome & the maps greatly assist with visually deciphering the explanation of each conflict & how it was won. Each conflict/battle includes a fact box at the beginning that literally lists the "who, what, when, where, why & outcome" of each battle...which is all I really want to know when reading history stuff that will probably only come in handy if I'm on Jeopardy one day.

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great Battles: Decisive Conflicts That Have Shaped History ...of the West. There fixed the title for you. The book seems to forget that there are parts of the world unless the west is fighting off the dastardly hoards of Persia, etc. And once America gets in there then we have a new country as the main source of battles.

The idea is interesting and liked the pictures as well as the battle maps at the end. But the content was highly disappointing.

[Joo Parn Ong · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since I'm Asian and the battles and wars are of America and Europe, it's not easy to understand. Plus, each war is different from the rest (different people, different plot and so on so forth), absorbing and learning history from this book is kind of tough. Nevertheless in a nutshell, I get to see how some nations are great; what they were in the past is what made them today.

[W. Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good summary of all the so called great battles with some important details added but not all. The drawing and painting depicts the battles adds to the historical moment. No actual photos but the art was done well to provide a lasting memory. This is a very good read that didn't bog me down with too much information but just enough.

[Kris McCracken · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well illustrated overview of the background, aftermath and the parties involved in some of Western History's most important battles. A bit light on in detail, but it does a decent job in conveying the key points.

[Salokya · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent, magnificient piece of work. Enjoyed reading it for its complete historical, hard/core facts.

[Sv Kapur]

Very nicely articulated all the decisive battles that played a crucial part in impacting the world.

[Jake Cooper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ten pivotal battles in Western history, from Marathon to Normandy, each described in 8 pages. A half page of setup (what's the war, who cares), followed by many pages of what-regiment-did-what-next.

[Dave Neary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice coffee table book. I have a preference for the older battles (US civil war and before).

[Mohd Ashraf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful illustrations, detail historical accounts, and intriguing storytelling - this book is an informative and fun read!