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Invisible Armies: An Epic History Of Guerrilla Warfare From Ancient Times To The Present (2013)

by Max Boot(Favorite Author)

3.95 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0871404249 (ISBN13: 9780871404244)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Liveright

review 1: This book is a huge book that may look scary like a reference manual. This book can also be used as a personal weapon in closed quarter battles. This book can also be used to learn from other people's mistakes and not commit the same. Pardon me if something doesn't go too well in the review as tweeting a lot has really resulted in me writing like the way a blue bird speaks.The book is about Guerrilla warfare since the earliest days till this date. I heard that it took 6 years for the author to write the book. This shows as lot of interesting people and facts are sprinkled all around the book. Now why would anybody be interested in guerrilla warfare of 4000 years and why would anybody even read a book that is close to a foot long. Well these are the reasons why you should r... moreead this book. (most importantly Indians should)A. Insurgency has been a companion of man since civilizations began and we still have not accorded due importance to it. B. India has been facing on of the oldest insurgencies of the world in NE and has faced insurgencies in varied terrains. Plains, urban, mountains and jungles.C. There is a myth that they are unprofessional and easy to defeat which is definitely not the case.D. Last but not the least this is going to be the future of warfare. A mixture of conventional and non-conventional forces working in tandem.This book asks and answers some interesting questionsA. Who were the world's first terrorist and why did a Roman army the size of more than 10000 get slaughtered by Jewish irregulars.B. How did Greeks win their independence from Ottomans even after not being able to win much against them?C. Why is Afghanistan still called as the graveyard of empires?D. Who were the so called Assassins the mysterious commandos of the medieval age?The cumulative outcome of this book can be summarized as "Good Governance, Rule of law, Early detection and quick response" is the magic formula and also a commodity that is rare these days: Patience. The book is divided into parts which classify guerrilla warfare into terrorism, insurgencies etc. Each chapter is devoted to that particular group and event. The style of writing is easy and interesting to read. It reads like a story which shares lot of useful information and characters. It does justice to lot of forgotten heroes and concepts which have influenced the way wars have been conducted and improved over a period of time. There is also analysis in between chapters which trace the reason as to why a particular group was successful while the other lost its way.Now somethings that i found very surprising was, no mention of India at all in any of the chapters. We have fought and gained experience in almost all kind of terrain imaginable with the oldest and almost latest insurgency.Not one chapter for India. Extremely disappointing.Apart from that, please do read this book. We all need to know what is this insurgency all about, what mistakes were made and how not to commit the mistakes. Most important of all, how to ask questions the right way. Question everything and anything.
review 2: WORD OF WARNING. This is truly a tome of significant proportions. I mean that quite literally; it is heavy and jam-packed with remarkable accounts from history. That being said, it is worth while to read if your biceps are up to the task.Max Boot provides a comprehensive and often times utterly fascinating look at unconventional warfare from ancient history all the way to modern times. I found the accounts to be precisely the right length, complete enough to provide background and insight into the context of the respective struggles without being weighted down by centuries of history.While the author has his own ideas and definitions of what guerrilla warfare is, I truly appreciated the attempts at delineation between such and terrorists. Based on many of the accounts in the book there is a razor thin line between the two terms which is often trampled over.I could not recommend this book more highly to anybody with the slightest interest in military history. Just amazing in scope and detail. It was a ponderous read, but very enjoyable. less

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