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Battles That Changed History
A highly informative, richly illustrated guide to more than 45 of history’s most significant battles, including Megiddo, Marathon, Alesia, Hastings, Nagashino, Yorktown, Waterloo, Gettysburg, Tsushima, Verdun, Stalingrad, the Tet Offensive, Iraqi Freedom, and many more.
Features clear, full-color tactical maps for each battle, showing at a glance the dispositions and movements of the opposing forces•
For each entry, a quick reference panel provides essential details on the battle’s date, location, key players, troops, and outcome
Features clear, full-color tactical maps for each battle, showing at a glance the dispositions and movements of the opposing forces•
For each entry, a quick reference panel provides essential details on the battle’s date, location, key players, troops, and outcome
448 pages, Paperback
Published November 21, 2016
26 people are currently reading
267 people want to read
About the author
Martin J. Dougherty
178 books53 followersHailing from northeast England, Martin J Dougherty is a professional writer specialising in military history. He has been at times a games designer, an engineer, a self-protection instructor, a teacher and a defence analyst. Martin has published a range of books covering topics as diverse as self-protection, medieval warfare and space flight, and has addressed international conferences on anti-shipping missiles and homeland security issues.
Martin's interests include martial arts and fencing. He has coached Fencing, Ju-Jitsu, Self-Defence and Kickboxing for many years at the University of Sunderland, and has competed to national level as a fencer. As a martial artist he holds black belts in Combat Ju-Jitsu, Nihon Tai-Jitsu and Self-Defence. Martin is a Senior Assessor with the Self-Defence Federation and an IL1 instructor/assessor with the Britsh Federation for Historical Swordplay, specialising in the Military Sabre and the Smallsword.
Martin's interests include martial arts and fencing. He has coached Fencing, Ju-Jitsu, Self-Defence and Kickboxing for many years at the University of Sunderland, and has competed to national level as a fencer. As a martial artist he holds black belts in Combat Ju-Jitsu, Nihon Tai-Jitsu and Self-Defence. Martin is a Senior Assessor with the Self-Defence Federation and an IL1 instructor/assessor with the Britsh Federation for Historical Swordplay, specialising in the Military Sabre and the Smallsword.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
July 28, 2021
The cons outweigh the pros. This book had potential to be amazing and it’s what drew me to buy it. Once I sat down and started reading it, however, I found it problematic. The battle maps were great at first glance, but once you sit and study them with the captions, you realize it’s hard to picture battlefield movement (advancements, retreats, encirclements etc.) from a single static diagram. What would have been better is to show a strip of diagrams showing different steps of the battle. There was often also few keys to the diagram so it took a while to figure which army was which.
The choice.of battles was also poor. There are many battles that were important historically that were excluded. For example, they dedicate a chapter to the battle of Sinai, but nothing to the 6 day war which was historically more significant. I was also surprised to find out that there was also no mention of the battle of Midway. This was the turning point of the Pacific War in WWII. How could that have been excluded from a book with this title? There was also no mention of Saratoga or Gallipoli. “Battles that Decided the Fate of Nations?” what about any of the African colonial wars?
Then, there was the writing...
The writing was awful. I felt like some parts were written by a high schooler rushing to finish his paper the night before the deadline. There were many sentences that referred to ideas that weren’t previously explained. This made it difficult to conceptualize what was going on. There was an absurd amount of grammatical errors including spelling and agreement. At one time, there was a page that just ended mid- sentence. When I turned the page, there was the title of a new battle.
Some battles were written awkwardly. Imagine someone took a text in English and then translated it into another language, then had it translated twenty more times in succession into different languages and then finally back into English again. That’s what the chapter was like. You’d have to reread it numerous times just to understand what was going on. Whoever the editor is, he/she should be ashamed of themselves. I can’t believe that books this poorly written are allowed to be published!
Imagine a professor asked a group of 47 of his undergraduate students to write a ten page paper on a major world battle, but he only gave them a day to do it. Then took all the unedited papers, stitched them together in chronological order and put them in a book. That’s what this book is like.
In the end, I learned a lot about the battles, but I got a headache trying to understand what the author was explaining and visualizing it on the diagrams.
The choice.of battles was also poor. There are many battles that were important historically that were excluded. For example, they dedicate a chapter to the battle of Sinai, but nothing to the 6 day war which was historically more significant. I was also surprised to find out that there was also no mention of the battle of Midway. This was the turning point of the Pacific War in WWII. How could that have been excluded from a book with this title? There was also no mention of Saratoga or Gallipoli. “Battles that Decided the Fate of Nations?” what about any of the African colonial wars?
Then, there was the writing...
The writing was awful. I felt like some parts were written by a high schooler rushing to finish his paper the night before the deadline. There were many sentences that referred to ideas that weren’t previously explained. This made it difficult to conceptualize what was going on. There was an absurd amount of grammatical errors including spelling and agreement. At one time, there was a page that just ended mid- sentence. When I turned the page, there was the title of a new battle.
Some battles were written awkwardly. Imagine someone took a text in English and then translated it into another language, then had it translated twenty more times in succession into different languages and then finally back into English again. That’s what the chapter was like. You’d have to reread it numerous times just to understand what was going on. Whoever the editor is, he/she should be ashamed of themselves. I can’t believe that books this poorly written are allowed to be published!
Imagine a professor asked a group of 47 of his undergraduate students to write a ten page paper on a major world battle, but he only gave them a day to do it. Then took all the unedited papers, stitched them together in chronological order and put them in a book. That’s what this book is like.
In the end, I learned a lot about the battles, but I got a headache trying to understand what the author was explaining and visualizing it on the diagrams.
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June 30, 2022Bought this as a research tool for my Quiz Bowl team. Overall good summaries and bits of trivia about what they wore and the weapons they used. Have some major problems with the selection and what was deemed "important!" US Civil War: Second Manassas? Really? Lee whips another in a line of Union hacks before Lincoln finally settles on Grant? Vicksburg campaign or Siege of Atlanta are way more important, especially the former. World War II? No mention of Midway or El Alemain? Chosin Resevoir or the Inchon landings are ignored as is the entire Korean War!. No credit to Saratoga in the American Revolution, which historians are almost in uniform agreement that it was the key victory to getting French support for the colonies.
February 19, 2018
The detailed battle maps are a definite highlight. However, they are, for me, difficult to grasp. They lack compass rose and symbol key identifying the bricks that are supposedly participating in the action. Three-D reinactments on included CDROM would be a bigger plus. Locations mentioned in the text should receive enhanced treatment.
January 14, 2022
A very good looking book with a title that had a great potential but very disappointing for its misleading cover and its selection of so called “key battles”.
Although there is a great content inside, the overall message given by the book is either one-sided and not global or quite commercial-oriented.
Although there is a great content inside, the overall message given by the book is either one-sided and not global or quite commercial-oriented.
October 18, 2023
This is a coffee table book that examines some of the greatest battles in history. 8-10 pages per battle has a map showing how the battle unfolded, how it started and how it affected history. Some of the battle were interesting choices, Second Bull Run is one that immediately comes to mind but a good brief overview of the battles.
April 14, 2024
In general it is good book, but the focus is on battles which have happened most in Europe. It failed to list other major battlers which happened in Asia, Russia and other places. Take example of mongolia genghis khan and his son, grandsons in the way of conquest the world, there are several keys batters along the way. These battles should change the history.
September 5, 2018
American-biased and western developed world-biased in general but interesting! Chapters are short, fairly pithy, and have worthwhile illustrations.
May 28, 2019
Interesting short synopsys of history's great battles. The Who, Why, result, and a description at a fairly high level.
August 17, 2024
This book has an interesting collection of battles, most of which would certainly qualify as important battles in world history (such as Marathon, Constantinople, and Waterloo). However, several entries were rather puzzling, such as Lake Peipus and the Somme; it seems that these battles were included due to their "impact on modern public consciousness", without explaining exactly what this phrase means or why these particular battles were included and not others. Also, for the most part, the individual chapters don't really go into detail about how the battles included in the book changed history.
December 30, 2015
This book took me a while to get through but I enjoyed it. It gives a decent summary of a number of battles that the author deemed significant. Some of the battles that the author chose to include or not include didn't make that much sense to me, but that is the way it goes when you read this type of book. I really liked that each battle had a two page map of the battle movements for the engagement. This helped me visualize what was happening.
January 21, 2016
The illustrations were great, and I thought this was an interesting way to get a glimpse into military history as someone who's never really studied it. The writing suffers from a few editing errors and the text can be a little dry at times, but the format in general makes up for it. This may not be a cover-to-cover read for most people but it'd be a good resource for writers and military enthusiasts.
April 16, 2012
Very informative book, one I used regularly when teaching. Easily broken down with great maps. A touch on the heavy side, though!
March 3, 2014
A very interesting presentation. I think that there were quite a few more battles than listed, but then the book would be a foot thick.
December 4, 2016
Skvělá kniha z pohledu vojenské strategie konkrétních historicky významných bitev. Výborné čtení na záchod...:)
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews