Rate this book

Moment Of Battle: The Twenty Clashes That Changed The World (2013)

by Jim Lacey(Favorite Author)

3.78 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

034552697X (ISBN13: 9780345526977)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Bantam

review 1: This book is really poorly written. It covers historic battles in an interesting way, but the prose is very annoying. Referring to Sir Francis Drake as a lovable "Sea Dog" is not writing history. Neither is making bad puns and not acknowledging how bad they are - I paraphrase, but there's a line on the Kursk section that is essentially "When Nazi Germany invaded Russia, they faced the toughest general yet--General Winter."
review 2: The authors have chosen twenty battles that met their criteria of changing the course of history for years, if not generations, beyond the war and the events in which they occurred. It is an interesting concept, and part of the fun of reading the book is the justification provided by the author to substantiate that choice. I don't... more think they succeed with all twenty battles. They have chosen four battles out of WWII - at least two of do not meet the criteria they define. The argument of lasting historical affect clearly fits the Battle of Britain and Midway, but their other two choices don't. One (D-Day) was a momentous event that affected the course of the war. But if D-Day had failed, the defeat of Germany would still have happened. The Allies would have come back and done it again, and done it better. D-Day affected the timing of the course of the war, not its result and thus not really the course of history in years to follow. Likewise the Battle of Kursk - an odd choice under the "world-changing" concept. Stalingrad would be the world-changer -- that huge, monstrous siege and battle that represented the high water mark for NAZI Germany. Losing at Stalingrad - and it could have gone the other way - turned the war irrevocably against Germany - as did Midway turn it against Japan. From that point on, Germany could not win... it could surge and fight for years yet to come, but it could not win. That cannot be said of Kursk.The French defeat at Dien Bein Phu is another peculiar choice. I was interested to read the author's summary account of the battle and the historical events that led up to it. But I don't see the French defeat as world-changing... not in the substantive and lasting fashion defined by the author's. A far better argument could be made for the 1968 Tet offensive that was a crushing US victory and yet was the turning point for the US slide into defeatism and antiwar politics, all of which certainly have had world-changing influence in the years since. The 20th battle offered is the drive to Baghdad in the Iraq War... a choice I simply don't understand. If it ever proves to be world-changing, we won't know it for years and years to come. I doubt that happens - there is no indication that the drive on Baghdad will prove to have changed much of anything in the Mideast. Perhaps it would have if the US had made better use of its time in Iraq, and made better preparation for a continuing presence there following the emergence of a stable and viable Iraqi government... but that didn't happen and current events seem to indicate a return to the usual state of affairs ante-bellum. Mideastern entropy at play, I suppose. Speculation by the authors that the drive to Baghdad will be world-changing is really weak, to be kind. That said, the greater value of the book for me was to give me some exposure to some historical events outside my range of historical interests. It is a nice smorgasbord of battles that are succinctly, but interestingly, narrated with enough personal detail and context to make them meaningful and enjoyable to read. Some deal with historical eras that do not interest me - but the battle described did and thus gave me a small grounding in the era. That's a big plus for the book. And to the extent the author's compel you to digest and evaluate their arguments for historical significance, it is stimulating. Agree - disagree - it's a good thought exercise! less

Download links for: Moment of Battle: The Twenty Clashes That Changed the World

Advertising