50 Military Leaders Who Changed the World

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50 Military Leaders Who Changed the World

3.54 of 5 stars 3.54 · rating details · 13 ratings · 3 reviews

50 Military Leaders That Changed the World does not celebrate warfare, but rather shines its spotlight on the leaders the author believes have had the greatest impact on world history. The 50 Military Leaders That Changed the World weren?t necessarily the ?best? leaders, the most innovative strategists, craftiest tacticians, or even the bravest, smartest, or most admirable...more

Hardcover, 259 pages

Published December 1st 2006 by New Page Books

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Sep 28, 2009 Colleen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: history

Nice book that made me rethink a lot of commonly held conceptions of mine (so King Gustav got credit for all of Maurice of Nassau's ideas?!). Author has a distinct voice which is nice and he makes no bones about certain opinions he has or where he stands on issues, which I also like, even though I didn't always agree with him (I don't think Hitler was a military strategist of note--and he made more errors than just the Russian campaign). He is not a fan of McArthur, who I can't stand, so it's al...more Nice book that made me rethink a lot of commonly held conceptions of mine (so King Gustav got credit for all of Maurice of Nassau's ideas?!). Author has a distinct voice which is nice and he makes no bones about certain opinions he has or where he stands on issues, which I also like, even though I didn't always agree with him (I don't think Hitler was a military strategist of note--and he made more errors than just the Russian campaign). He is not a fan of McArthur, who I can't stand, so it's always nice to read more criticism on that jerk.

I liked his 50 choices and learned a lot about often forgotten people who changed history through their actions (many of the people included never saw battle, but through their theories or books, altered events dramatically).

Terrible editing or proofreading though. In the chapter on Simon Bolivar I was super impressed with all his achievements because I was imagining him as a wizened old man doing all these battles and traveling all over South America liberating nations--since the book says he was born in 1734. When I got to the part when he resigns presidency in 1830 and decides to travel to Europe, I was like wait a minute...and had to get out of bed and go look it up since I couldn't imagine a 96 year old then being so active. And yeah, it was a typo in the book, Bolivar was born in 1783. His achievements were still impressive but I can't believe no one caught that mistake.

There were other dates too that I wondered about but not as hard. And one image with a wrong caption. Also, dates were used very sparingly in some chapters and I had no idea when most of the battles & events were occuring; in other chapters, dates were all over. Also, I had to keep paging back to figure out who he was talking about sometimes because it was unclear. So whoever edited this book let the author down in numerous places.

And he refers to Minoans as Minyans, and I don't know why, but that bothers me SO MUCH. I had to also get up and look that up to see if that's the newfangled fancy way to spell it--and it doesn't appear so. When I look it up, I just get references to Hebrew and Jewish groups...so still not sure. Perhaps that was a misspelling?

Enjoyed the book though, and I'd be happy to read more by this author. (less)

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Aug 10, 2010 Tom rated it 3 of 5 stars

A decent quick read, Weir first states he may have overloaded the book with Americans, but he is an Americans writing for Americans, so that would be why. That said, he doesn't have that many compared to other countries and does a good enough job writing up quick profiles. The book is far from perfect, with a few typoes and an additional resources section that lists Wikipedia entries. Weir also starts his final profile with a challenging insistance that the United States and its allies won the K...more

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Jun 27, 2009 Mel Vincent rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: military-history

Talks about how these Men with all their capabilities shape and influence the world and how their actions affect the course of countries,empires,battles and of course of history. Napoleon,Alexander the Great,Julius Caesar and Genghis Khan are my favorites

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Apr 27, 2013 Paul added it · review of another edition

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Shelves: box-29

Jan 26, 2013 Dan marked it as to-read

Jan 16, 2013 Nick Lloyd rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, 18th-century-warfare, 19th-century-warfare, 20th-century-warfare

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Oct 06, 2012 Brian rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history

Aug 23, 2012 Márcia marked it as total

Apr 04, 2012 Christos Corliss rated it 3 of 5 stars

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Nov 12, 2011 Neelam is currently reading it · review of another edition

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Sep 01, 2011 Gasho rated it 4 of 5 stars

Jul 24, 2011 Lee rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history

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Jan 17, 2012 Etienne Lee rated it 4 of 5 stars

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Apr 23, 2011 Kelly rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: kindle, did-not-finish

Apr 25, 2010 Existoid rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Feb 13, 2010 Ethan marked it as to-read

Nov 04, 2009 Sdoconnor marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: military

May 20, 2009 Mel added it

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Shelves: history-mil

Jul 07, 2008 Ijorabi rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, nonfiction

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Fatal Victories: From the Crusades to Bunker Hill to the Vietnam War: History's Most Tragic Military Triumphs and the High Cost of Victory

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