50 Battles That Changed the World [Abridged] [Audio CD]

William Weir (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2008

Rather than celebrating warfare, 50 Battles That Changed The World looks at the clashes the author believes have had the most profound impact on world history. Listed in order of their relevance to the modern world, they range from the ancient past to the present day and span the globe many times over. This book is not so much about military strategy as the implications of the battles that were vital in shaping civilization as we know it. Some of the battles in this book are familiar to us all-Bunker Hill, which prevented the American Revolution from being stillborn, and Marathon, which kept the world's first democracy alive. Others may be less familiar-the naval battle at Diu (on the Indian Coast), which led to the ascendancy of Western Civilization and the discovery of America, and Yarmuk, which made possible the spread of Islam from Morocco to the Philippines.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

William Weir, a former Army combat correspondent and photographer in the Korean War, has written eight previous books, including 50 Weapons that Changed Warfare and 50 Battles that Changed the World. In addition to his Army service, Weir has been a newspaper reporter and a public relations specialist. He is now retired and lives in Guilford, Connecticut with his wife, Anne.

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Listen & Live Audio, Inc.; Abridged edition (March 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593161050
• ISBN-13: 978-1593161057
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,029,264 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but flawed, July 24, 2004

By 

J. P. Molene (St. Paul, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 50 Battles That Changed the World (Paperback)

There's a lot to like about William Weir's 50 Battles That Changed The World. But there are also some problems. I would recommend this book, but only as a companion to other similar works, such as Battles That Changed History by Geoffrey Reagan.

The author has an interesting take on the importance of these 50 battles, preferring to focus on how the battles shaped modern civilization. That is certainly a valid approach. Many to most of his choices are impeccable, but several choice are questionable.

He includes some rather curious choices such as Dublin, the Nika Rebellion, Petrograd, Tanga and Wu-sung. But not Yorktown, Gettysburg, Crecy, El Alamein, Salamis, Blenheim or Dien Bien Phu.

There's 11 pages on Tenochititlan, and nine pages on the battle of Chickamauga, for instance, compared to five on Saratoga and Waterloo.

And listing the Nika Rebellion as the second most important battle of all time? Hard to figure where that is coming from.

There's little to nothing about military strategic and tactics, which is why I think most people read this sort of thing.

There are almost no maps, and the illustrations are small.

Also, there are numerous typos, many of them just careless, such as the caption that says (insert commander here).

Again, it's an interesting take on the world's great battles. Just don't take it as gospel.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Infinitely superior to most books of this type out there., February 18, 2002

By 

Steven F. Olivo (Carlstadt, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 50 Battles That Changed the World (Hardcover)

I've read at least a dozen of these "turning points" books, and this is by far the best so far produced in the realm of military history, far superior to even more recent work. William Weir's prose is infinitely more readable than the academic language that typically obscures more than it reveals. He makes his points and makes them clear rather than burying them in infinite analyses that leave you wondering what the original point was.

He is also not afraid to take a stand and point the finger where it belongs most of the time. His work does not make repeated apologies to the darlings of political correctness, and is not afraid to say, for example, that the Islamic world brought its own failures on itself by the smug, dismissive way it acted after Hattin, or that the lands of North Africa were Christian until the explosive Islamic conquest in the 600s. Likewise he is not afraid to shatter certain myths of military history that are just that, myths, such as the Teutoburg Forest, the Plains of Abraham, and the Siege of Orleans.

Although I find myself disagreeing with him on the importance of certain battles, which appear to be rehashes of the entries in his groudbreaking Fatal Victories, most of his calls regarding importance are right on the money, and should shake up the lists written by complacent academics.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Some good points, but mostly poor, December 29, 2008

By 

Colin J. Salt (Ulster County, NY US) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 50 Battles That Changed the World (Paperback)

Although not entirely bad and containing some interesting historical information, this book contains many questionable choices of battles and poor scholarship.

The best example is its section on the battle of Chickamauga, which is the only battle of the American Civil War included inside. Not only was the battle not very decisive (its greatest effect was to halt the Union advance into Georgia for a few months), but the author's justification of it is laughable. He brushes aside Gettysburg and Vicksburg by saying "[it] proved only what Lee had already demonstrated at Antietam: that he couldn't conquer the North" for the former and "But the Union already controlled 99% of the great river" for the latter. Both have many factual errors, such as the fact that Lee never intended to conquer the North with his invasion and that the nature of a river means that even one stronghold can block it off entirely.

The rest of the book has errors of a similar nature. Midway is listed, while Guadalcanal is not. Never mind that the former was purely defensive, while the latter was a draining engagement that wrecked the Japanese air force and showed the Americans that Japan could be beaten decisively on land.

Overall, a book with more bad points than good ones.