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77th out of 165 books
—
59 voters
50 Battles That Changed the World: The Conflicts That Most Influenced the Course of History
by
William Weir
Rather than celebrating warfare, 50 Battles That Changed the World looks at the clashes the author believes have had the most profound impact on world history. Listed in order of their relevance to the modern world, they range from the ancient past to the present day and span the globe many times over. This book is not so much about military strategy as the implications of...more
Paperback, 320 pages
Published
March 1st 2004
by New Page Books
(first published 2001)
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Rather than celebrating warfare, 50 Battles That Changed the World looks at the clashes the author believes have had the most profound impact on world history. Listed in order of their relevance to the modern world, they range from the ancient past to the present day and span the globe many times over. This book is not so much about military strategy as the implications of the battles that were vital in shaping civilization as we know it.Some of the battles in this book are familiar to us all-Bu...more
A war fought for either selfish or any altruistic reason, is detrimental to mankind. The perils of any war is not only horrendous but changes the course of history.This book portrays the exact sentiments on how an active battle-front can influence the working of human life. This book periodically categorizes 50 influential battles ever fought from 'The Marathon'(490BC) to the 'Battle of Atlantic'(1935-45AD). William Weir puts forth a highly detailed encyclopedia of conflicts while meticulously...more
This books seems like it would have been much better if I'd read it rather than listening to the audiobook. It also seems like it would be much easier to understand if diagrams were included. I enjoyed the historical backgrounds given to explain why a certain battle was influential. I also thought the detail about how the battles were fought was neat, though hard to follow in an audiobook.
One my favorite books. Offers great little pieces of history -some familiar, some not at all. The descriptions are quite cynical and opinionated, and that's where it gets fun! I can't give it a top rating however, due to some grammatical shortcomings, and the lack of both maps and quality illustrations. This book needs a reprint!
The entries are so brief that it's hard to understand the historical context. At least it's hard for me . . . and somebody with more knowledge of history than I have probably doesn't need a book this basic.
Great idea for a book, though.
Great idea for a book, though.
If you love to study battle this is a great book. It carefully details the political causes for each battle and gives a good overview of the campaign leading to it. The battles themselves are well described and accompanied by diagrams.
Quick snapshots of 50 great battles, who fought who, and why the battle was important. An easy read for those times when you can not get engrossed in a long story.
this is an awesome book. one couldn't ask for a more interesting book of World Battles History.
Ótimo livro que explica o motivo de que algumas batalhas forjaram nossa cultura e civilização.
This is a well-written book that consists of brief accounts of decisive battles in the history of the world. The author is not shy about his criteria for selecting battles. However, he omits the last great siege of Vienna while including the prior one. But this is a minor point as he explains why this was a mere also ran in his appendix. The descriptions of the battles are succinct, slangy, and well designed. He places the battles in historical context and gives his reasons for their importance....more
Interesting as this book was, I didn't find it all that insightful. Maybe I'd need to find deeper information about some of the individual battles and their lasting effects. But it seemed like they kept covering battles from very similar/same eras and so the whole "changed the world" aspect lost something. It should have been "Wars that changed the world." But whatever, the author brought up some battles I had never heard of in my life. Those seemed to be the most interesting of all.
A great book that overall I would recomend to anyone who loves history. Though there are some things that I didn't like: 1 he (William Weir) didn't organize the battles chronologically and 2 he was constantly attributing unexplainable miracles to luck, chance, fate, fortune, etc. I on the other hand give the glory to God not chance.
However, the information is excelent and it is a book wholly worth reading in my opinion.
However, the information is excelent and it is a book wholly worth reading in my opinion.
This book reveals its problems even before it is opened. Instead of a positive review on the back, it just has a quote from the book-- written in William Weir's awful prose. The combination of historical inaccuracies, bizarre choices (The Nika Rebellion is the second most important battle of all time), and atrocious writing all make this book one to avoid.
I enjoyed this for the first half, but then started getting confused because the battles were not reviewed in chronological order. If I had been taking notes, or had a better world history timeline in my head I would have enjoyed it more.
How the modern world was shaped because of these decisive battles. Makes you wonder that if these battles went the other way, the world would have been different today
Read some of the chapters; will read more at a later date.
Jul 26, 2011
Lorenz
added it
VERY informative!!
May 23, 2013
Elizabeth
marked it as to-read
May 12, 2013
Aviral
marked it as to-read
May 04, 2013
Jonas
marked it as to-read
Mar 17, 2013
Enor Hz
marked it as to-read
Feb 14, 2013
Jeremy Zilkie
marked it as to-read
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