Customer Reviews

100 Decisive Battles: From Ancient Times to the Present

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
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This book provides a concise look at Davis's choice of 100 Decisive Battles. To many people 100 battles may seem little, but Davis's choices are by far the most important battles that shaped history. Many historians may argue with his choices but overall the most decisive ones are described in the book with justifiable reasons. One slight flaw to the book is that Davis does not balance geographically the battles. As a result, we have less-important European battles included and more-important Other battles excluded. The format is easy to follow. Davis takes each battle and writes out the chronology of the battle in the following sections: Forces Engaged, Importance, Historical Setting, The Battle and Results. Each battle doesn't take more than 5 pages. Due to its conciseness, some steps of the battle are left out, but Davis conveys his idea of why the battle is important. One small suggestion to the author would be to include more maps and troop movements for many times the location of troops has tremendous impact on the outcome of the battle. Another small suggestion would be to talk more about the strategies employed. Overall, this book is a great introduction to extensive studying of military history.

Although ostensibly about battles, this book is better read as a snapshot-style history of major wars. The extensive sections on the background and results of the battles provide pretty good accounts of a lot of military campaigns. But Davis's summaries of the actual battles are generally too brief to be informative and the illustrations are poor. In addition, buyers should be aware that the book is primarily a history of Western battles, with a smaller number of battles from other areas added in. Finally, although Davis's writing style is fluid and generally engaging, the book contains a surprising number of grammatical errors that perfectionists may find distracting.

"100 Decisive Battles" provides detailed information about 100 of the most important battles in the history of the world. With an average of 4 or 5 pages per battle, the book not only provides the reader with an excellent resource, but informative, in- depth passages as well. Every entry includes the name and date of the battle, as well as information about the opposing commanders, the size of the forces involved, and casualties. Also, the campaign and historical setting surrounding the battle are analyzed and explained. Many maps, pictures, and 'sidebars' with information about topics related to the battle are included.

Unlike many similar books, "100 Decisive Battles" is unbiased in its account of the battles, and also gives equal coverage to battles in all parts of the world, including regions often given insufficient coverage by other sources, such as the Middle East and Central America.

A table of contents, a preface explaining how the battles are selected, and an easy to use index are included.

Here is a list of all the battles listed in "100 Decisive Battles":

Megiddo, Thymbra, Marathon, Salamis, Leuctra, Syracuse, Chaeronea, Gaugamela, Ipsus, Metaurus River, kai-hsia, Zama, Pydna, Alesia, Pharsalus, Actium, Teutoburg Forest, Beth-horon, Milvian Bridge, Adrianople, Chalons, Tricameron, Badr, Constantinople, Tours, Pavia, Lechfeld, Hastings, Manzikert, Jerusalem, Hattin, Second Battle of Taraori, Bouvines, Ain Jalut, Hsiang-yang, Hakata Bay, Brusa, Crecy, Orleans, Constantinople, Grenada, Tenochtitlan, Panipat, Vienna, Cajamarca, Lepanto, Spanish Armada, Sekigahara, Breitenfeld, Shanhaikuan, Naseby, Battle of the Dunes, Blenheim, Poltava, Culloden, Plassey, Quebec, Trenton, Saratoga, Yorktown, Valmy, Rivoli, Aboukir Bay (Battle of the Nile), Trafalgar, Jena?Auerstadt, Tippecanoe, Borodino, Leipzig, Waterloo, Ayacucho San Jacinto, Mexico City, Antietam (Sharpsburg), Gettysburg, Atlanta, Sedan, Tel el Kebir, Manila Bay, Mukden, Tsushima, First Battle of the Marne, Verdun, Brusilov Offensive, Second Battle of the Marne, Warsaw, Poland, Dunkirk, Battle of Britain, Moscow, Pearl Harbor, Singapore, Midway, Normandy (D-Day), Okinawa, Isreal's War of Independence, Huai Hai (Suchow), Inchon, Dien Bien Phu, Tet Offensive, Desert Storm.

Overall, this book is essential to the library of anyone interested in history or warfare.

This is book does a good job introducing significant battles in their contexts as well as depicting the effects they had on worked history. This is a great book to read to just get an overview of history and some knowledge of military history. In describing 100 battles, the author was restricted on the space for each individual account. He often makes references to places and towns whose location a casual reader would be hard pressed to find. The lack of quantity and quality of maps is also disappointing. The descriptions of the battles themselves were a little disappoint as well. Over all this is a pretty good account, I would give it 3.5 if I could. The book's strength lies in the context and consequences of the battle, and not the accounts of the battles themselves. It does get a little boring at times, but I still recommend it.

This book provides, for 100 definitive battles in history, the historical setting, the battle including a short description of it and a diagram or map showing the where the armies were positioned, and the result, the result including the effect on history and what would have happened if the battle had been won by the other side.

It is an excellent reference as well as a good summary of history with all the battles placed in date sequence. It is fun to read. I found myself picking out may favorite battles and then reading the battles before and after. Finally, I found I had read the whole book. When I read a book which refers to a battle, I grab this book for a broad historical perspective. I only wish I had acquired it years ago.

This book's easy format, as well as Davis's writing style, all contribute towards on of the most interesting books I've seen. The only real problem is the price tag. Otherwise, this is an all-around excellent history book.

Paul Davis undertakes an effort to identify the 100 most decisive battles in history. The three criteria that he uses to select key battles:

"1. The outcome of the battle brought about a major political or social change. . . .
2. Had the outcome of the battle been reversed, major political or social changes would
have ensued. . . .
3. The battle marks the introduction of a major change in warfare."

There follows the enumeration, with each battle covered in 4-5 pages, with (sometimes) maps, with a brief preface that outlines what happened and why the battles was important.

The book reads pretty well and provokes a lot of thinking about the subject. However, there is some idiosyncrasy in the selection of battles. Of course, honorable people will differ, but some of the choices are strange indeed.

Inchon is selected as a decisive battle; yet the Korean War was something of a draw. Hard for me to see how a long, bloody, and indecisive conflict could have a battle conceived as one of the world's most decisive combats. "Desert Storm"? A third rate power (Iraq) against the most powerful nation on earth? A one-sided conflict. Further, the invasion of Iraq in the 21st century suggests that there was nothing decisive about Desert Storm. Otherwise, why a revisitation of the conflict between the United States and Iraq? The fact that four of the hundred were from the Pacific Theater in World War II suggests a real imbalance. Further, the author uses a strange logic to argue that Pearl Harbor was decisive. A great loss led to the US entering the war. An awkward logic by which to label this decisive. Midway was much more important, since it wrecked much of the Japanese carrier capability. Another query: Why both Leipzig and Waterloo? How often does Napoleon need to be defeated for a decisive victory? And if those were decisive, why include Napoleon's great victories, since he was fated to lose (e.g., Jena)? Why Jena rather than his masterpiece at Austerlitz? The rationale for Jena is pretty weak.

As other reviewers note, there is a heavy emphasis on Western battles.

In the end, even though one can disagree with many of the selections, this is a good read and does lead to some thinking about what were the most decisive battles. The fact that such questions emerge suggests the utility of the volume.

I frequently read military history books of all kinds and this is the best one ive found yet. It describes 100 battles that shaped the world and the choices are sound ones. While everyones favorites may not be in there such as the Battle of Cannae, you can understand why they could not be included. I agree with other reviewers in that the illustrations and maps arent so great but I disagree in that I think he does an excellent job of explaining the battle as it happens, given the limited information avaiable on the older battles. Each battle is set up nicely, explained thouroughly, and the effects of it are explained fully. There are also small side sections on some of the battles that further explain interesting topics such as the military career of Belisarius or the life of Joan of Arc. I don't think theres too much of a bias towards western culture because there are Chinese and Japanese battles included because of their importance. The book spans an incredible amount of history and I do think it slowly gets boring simply because ancient and medieval warfare is so much more interesting than modern. With the advancement of technology tactics are relied on less but that cant be helped. Overall this book gets 5 stars and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys history and/or warfare.

There are basically two types of non-fiction military history books: general and specific. General books might offer an overview of Viet Nam, while a specific book would address the Tet Offensive or tunnel rats.

If you're an avid historian, general books are usually too...well...general! They provide a gloss-over in order to cram the entire subject into the confines of the book. Specific books, on the other hand, can bore you with an overkill of details. They are also limited in their focus to the subject of the book, often not addressing outside contributing factors.

I initially began reading this book because I figured it would be something light I could skim over when I had 10-15 minutes of time here and there. I didn't expect much; after all, if a book trying to cover WWII in it's entirety was too general, how could the author hope to cover 100 different battles, over thousands of years, with any justice?

Davis found just the right combination. The battles are covered concisely, but still offer important details (such as the French's mindset towards warfare...independent barons each seeking their own glory and not having the discipline to unite before attacking...being their downfall at Crece). Even if you're well-read, you will learn from this book. To top it off, the battles are presented in chronological order, so you can see similarities in strategies, intended by the leaders or not.

My only ding on the book is that there are a few battles the author could have omitted for more-decisive ones. But hey, put 100 different historians in a room, and everyone's top 100 would probably be different! Check this book out. It's a great read.

This book is great for students who have an interest in military history. The descriptions of the battles are only covered over a few pages but Davis is able to give you a good back story, a solid duration and the impact the battles had on the course of history. This book won't give you all the facts but it's an excellent book to build a foundation for research. I'm not a regular reader but I ate this book up. After finishing I couldn't wait to pick it up again and read about the next battle. Seasoned history buffs may find the descriptions redundant but new comers should learn to love this book.