What do you think?
Rate this book
Battlefield: Decisive Conflicts in History
Salamis, Agincourt, Lepanto, Trafalgar, Gettysburg, Iswandlana, the Somme, Stalingrad--Battlefield: Decisive Conflicts in History tells the stories of the most dramatic, memorable, and important conflicts in world history. It begins with the battle of Megiddo in ancient Egypt in 1476 BC and takes the reader through to the Second Gulf War, covering almost 300 battles from around the world-- including the Middle East, Asia, Africa, as well as from Europe and the Americas. This important book is edited by Richard Holmes, who has written over 20 books, including The Oxford Companion to Military History.
The battles are grouped within chapters that tell the wider story of a particular era or region, for instance the ancient world, nineteenth-century Europe, World War I, or the Americas. Each chapter includes an introduction by Richard Holmes that sets out the historical, tactical, and technological context, and looks at current debates. In addition, individual battles are placed clearly within the wars and campaigns of which they formed a part, making it possible for the reader to follow the details of the battle, and at the same time to understand its military and historical implications.
Detailed maps portray the course of famous battles and campaigns, and a range of illustrations--many from contemporary sources--bring the narrative to life. An extensive index gives the reader quick access to historical figures, locations, battle formations, and much more. Battlefield summarizes the best of contemporary scholarship on battles and war in an accessible, engaging narrative, and it will be of interest to anyone interested in military history.
The battles are grouped within chapters that tell the wider story of a particular era or region, for instance the ancient world, nineteenth-century Europe, World War I, or the Americas. Each chapter includes an introduction by Richard Holmes that sets out the historical, tactical, and technological context, and looks at current debates. In addition, individual battles are placed clearly within the wars and campaigns of which they formed a part, making it possible for the reader to follow the details of the battle, and at the same time to understand its military and historical implications.
Detailed maps portray the course of famous battles and campaigns, and a range of illustrations--many from contemporary sources--bring the narrative to life. An extensive index gives the reader quick access to historical figures, locations, battle formations, and much more. Battlefield summarizes the best of contemporary scholarship on battles and war in an accessible, engaging narrative, and it will be of interest to anyone interested in military history.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
1 person is currently reading
57 people want to read
About the author
Richard Holmes
116 books95 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
See this thread for more information.
Edward Richard Holmes was Professor of Military and Security Studies at Cranfield University and the Royal Military College of Science. He was educated at Cambridge, Northern Illinois, and Reading Universities, and carried out his doctoral research on the French army of the Second Empire. For many years he taught military history at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst.
A celebrated military historian, Holmes is the author of the best-selling and widely acclaimed Tommy and Redcoat: The British Soldier in the Age of Horse and Musket. His dozen other books include Dusty Warriors, Sahib, The Western Front, The Little Field Marshal: Sir John French, The Road to Sedan, Firing Line, The Second World War in Photographs and Fatal Avenue: A Traveller’s History of Northern France and Flanders (also published by Pimlico).
He was general editor of The Oxford Companion to Military History and has presented eight BBC TV series, including ‘War Walks’, ‘The Western Front’ and ‘Battlefields’, and is famous for his hugely successful series ‘Wellington: The Iron Duke’ and ‘Rebels and Redcoats’.
See this thread for more information.
Edward Richard Holmes was Professor of Military and Security Studies at Cranfield University and the Royal Military College of Science. He was educated at Cambridge, Northern Illinois, and Reading Universities, and carried out his doctoral research on the French army of the Second Empire. For many years he taught military history at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst.
A celebrated military historian, Holmes is the author of the best-selling and widely acclaimed Tommy and Redcoat: The British Soldier in the Age of Horse and Musket. His dozen other books include Dusty Warriors, Sahib, The Western Front, The Little Field Marshal: Sir John French, The Road to Sedan, Firing Line, The Second World War in Photographs and Fatal Avenue: A Traveller’s History of Northern France and Flanders (also published by Pimlico).
He was general editor of The Oxford Companion to Military History and has presented eight BBC TV series, including ‘War Walks’, ‘The Western Front’ and ‘Battlefields’, and is famous for his hugely successful series ‘Wellington: The Iron Duke’ and ‘Rebels and Redcoats’.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 9, 2015
-Un paseo por nuestra historia bélica.-
Género. Historia.
Lo que nos cuenta. Con Richard Holmes y Martin Marix Evans como editores, compilación de entradas de The Oxford Companion to Military History tratando de ofrecer un repaso cronológico de las batallas y conflictos que han forjado nuestro mundo. Libro también conocido, en otras ediciones, como “Las guerras que han marcado la historia”.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com....
Género. Historia.
Lo que nos cuenta. Con Richard Holmes y Martin Marix Evans como editores, compilación de entradas de The Oxford Companion to Military History tratando de ofrecer un repaso cronológico de las batallas y conflictos que han forjado nuestro mundo. Libro también conocido, en otras ediciones, como “Las guerras que han marcado la historia”.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com....
August 31, 2018
It is hard to decide whether to praise this book for its ambition or to fault the book for its execution. Perhaps it is best to do a little bit of both. This volume, at nearly 400 pages, seeks to provide a definitive look at battles around the world over the entire span of human history. This is, moreover, not a first edition work. The author acknowledges in the volume that he paid too much attention to European history and ignored American history outside of the Civil War originally, and so this book represents an attempt to redress those concerns. It did not succeed. I am unsure how large a book needs to be to do justice to the important conflicts of history [1], but this book is not nearly long enough. For all of its attempts to redress known shortcomings, it fails badly to provide coverage of the world at war. To be sure, a book might have to be 500 or more pages to do the subject justice, as it does not appear like any content here deserves to be removed, but this book is not large enough to do the subject justice.
This book is organized very strangely, with a focus on regional history as well as, to some extent, chronological periods. The author begins with a look at the military history of the ancient world of the Middle East--no China and India here, unfortunately--looking at the period from ancient history to the rise of the Roman Empire (1). After that the author looks at the military history of medieval Europe from the late Roman Empire to the Wars of the Roses (2). This leads to more European history from the Renaissance to the French Revolution (3). Chapters on 19th century military history (including the Napoleonic Wars) (4), World War I (5), and World War II (6) follow in quick succession, and by the time one is finished with these sections one has read about 2/3 of the book's material. In the remainder of the book's material we look at the history of the Americas--mostly focused on the United States (7), then the history of Asia and the Middle East (8), which is focused on various imperial and post-World War II wars, and closes with a very brief look at the military history of Africa (9). After that there are suggestions for further reading, an index, and photo acknowledgments.
It is easy to tell where this author goes wrong, but less easy to say why. It is puzzling that so much information is given about the military history of World War I when what was most notable about it was the lack of decisiveness, and very puzzling and unfortunate that the author includes information about World War II but misses Okinawa and the battle of Manila, for example. Likewise, the book still largely ignores military history in the Americas that does not involve the United States--there is only one battle included from the Latin American wars of independence, and none from the Paraguayan War or War of the Pacific or Chaco War, for example. There are no wars or battles in Africa covered that do not deal with European imperialism, nor are there any wars included for the entire continent of Oceania, not the Maori wars or the wars of Hawaiian unification. Perhaps most shockingly, there are no battles shown for ancient Indian or Chinese history, despite the fact that these wars were well-recorded (especially in China). One wonders which of the following unacceptable messages were being subtly sent by these serious omissions: that only Europeans and their settler colonies engage in warfare, and the rest of the world is more peaceful, or that only the wars of Europeans and their settler colonies are worth remembering, unless a war or battle is too obvious to ignore otherwise.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2014...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2014...
This book is organized very strangely, with a focus on regional history as well as, to some extent, chronological periods. The author begins with a look at the military history of the ancient world of the Middle East--no China and India here, unfortunately--looking at the period from ancient history to the rise of the Roman Empire (1). After that the author looks at the military history of medieval Europe from the late Roman Empire to the Wars of the Roses (2). This leads to more European history from the Renaissance to the French Revolution (3). Chapters on 19th century military history (including the Napoleonic Wars) (4), World War I (5), and World War II (6) follow in quick succession, and by the time one is finished with these sections one has read about 2/3 of the book's material. In the remainder of the book's material we look at the history of the Americas--mostly focused on the United States (7), then the history of Asia and the Middle East (8), which is focused on various imperial and post-World War II wars, and closes with a very brief look at the military history of Africa (9). After that there are suggestions for further reading, an index, and photo acknowledgments.
It is easy to tell where this author goes wrong, but less easy to say why. It is puzzling that so much information is given about the military history of World War I when what was most notable about it was the lack of decisiveness, and very puzzling and unfortunate that the author includes information about World War II but misses Okinawa and the battle of Manila, for example. Likewise, the book still largely ignores military history in the Americas that does not involve the United States--there is only one battle included from the Latin American wars of independence, and none from the Paraguayan War or War of the Pacific or Chaco War, for example. There are no wars or battles in Africa covered that do not deal with European imperialism, nor are there any wars included for the entire continent of Oceania, not the Maori wars or the wars of Hawaiian unification. Perhaps most shockingly, there are no battles shown for ancient Indian or Chinese history, despite the fact that these wars were well-recorded (especially in China). One wonders which of the following unacceptable messages were being subtly sent by these serious omissions: that only Europeans and their settler colonies engage in warfare, and the rest of the world is more peaceful, or that only the wars of Europeans and their settler colonies are worth remembering, unless a war or battle is too obvious to ignore otherwise.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2014...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2014...
July 28, 2015
Excelente libro para conocer las guerras que de una u otra manera han tenido repercución en el mundo, abarca desde el mundo antiguo hasta las mas recientes de la guerra del Golfo.
Si algún mexicano como yo esperaba ver material de alguna guerra de méxico lamento decepcionarlos pero solamente son 6 páginas que habla: Álamo, Guerra Mexico-EEUU y Guerra México-Francia. ¡Es todo!
Para empezar a conocer algún evento o saber qué sucedió me parece un buen libro para iniciarse.
Anexo los capítulos que vienen en el libro:
El mundo antiguo.
Europa Medieval.
Renacimiento a la Revolución Francesa.
Europa en el siglo XIX.
Primera Guerra Mundial.
Segunda Guerra Mundial.
América.
Asia y Oriente medio.
África.
Si algún mexicano como yo esperaba ver material de alguna guerra de méxico lamento decepcionarlos pero solamente son 6 páginas que habla: Álamo, Guerra Mexico-EEUU y Guerra México-Francia. ¡Es todo!
Para empezar a conocer algún evento o saber qué sucedió me parece un buen libro para iniciarse.
Anexo los capítulos que vienen en el libro:
El mundo antiguo.
Europa Medieval.
Renacimiento a la Revolución Francesa.
Europa en el siglo XIX.
Primera Guerra Mundial.
Segunda Guerra Mundial.
América.
Asia y Oriente medio.
África.
November 22, 2008
A great primer.
Very brief histories before the 19th century.
After that, the exact details required.
Very good for 'leafing' through, especially on battles where you may not be familiar.
It's quite good and a good reference. Hard to say when I'm finished as it isn't a book to read through. I'll say 'done' for now.
Very brief histories before the 19th century.
After that, the exact details required.
Very good for 'leafing' through, especially on battles where you may not be familiar.
It's quite good and a good reference. Hard to say when I'm finished as it isn't a book to read through. I'll say 'done' for now.
September 3, 2007
Apparently a condensed Oxford Companion to Military History. Handy reference of 300 battles with good intros. Lacks the verve of other histories, but the info is sound.
wishlist-a-k-a-buku-buruan
October 19, 2009Menggoda...
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews