Generals

by Suster, Gerald

• ISBN13: 9781861050182
• ISBN10: 1861050186
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-08-01
• Publisher: Robson Book Ltd

Summary

In this engrossing and inclusive work, historian Gerald Suster explores the nobility and folly of war through the ages by examining the work of the men and women whose direction of battle has significantly altered the course of history. Ranging from Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, Ghengis Khan and Joan of Arc, through the attack of the Spanish Armada, Napoleon, Nelson and Wellington, the trenches of the First World War and the blitzkreig of the Second, and leading up to the wars in Vietnam, the Falklands and the Gulf, Suster places each military leader in the context of their own time, detailing their psychological make-up, the circumstances of the conflict and analyzing the decisions they made that were to prove crucial turning points in battle. With this perceptive study of the moments when the fates of nations and empires were sealed, Suster illustrates the astonishing application of Intelligence of some generals and the amazing incompetence of others.Generals: The Best and Worst Military commanders brings to life the magic of history, the squalor of ineptitude and the art of winning and losing.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii	(2)
Introduction	ix
1 Alexander the Great (356-323 BC)	1	(13)
2 Hannibal (247-183 BC): Scipio Africanus (237-183 BC)	14	(13)
3 Julius Caesar (100-44 BC)	27	(7)
4 Mark Antony (82-30 BC) and Queen Cleopatra (69-30 BC)	34	(5)
5 Boudicca (?-61 AD)	39	(6)
6 Attila the Hun (c. 406-453 AD)	45	(9)
7 Genghis Khan (1162-1227)	54	(6)
8 The Hundred Years War and Edward III (1312-1377)	60	(10)
9 The Hundred Years War and Joan of Arc (c. 1412-1431)	70	(9)
10 The Spanish Armada and Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603)	79	(11)
11 Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658)	90	(9)
12 John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough (1650-1722)	99	(14)
13 Frederick the Great (1713-1786)	113	(10)
14 Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)	123	(15)
15 Horatio, Viscount Nelson (1758-1805)	138	(7)
16 Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington (1769-1852)	145	(13)
17 Time to Meet the World's Worst: Lord Fitzroy Somerset, Lord Raglan (1788-1855)	158	(12)
18 The Civil War in the United States of America: Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) versus Robert E. Lee (1807-1870)	170	(11)
19 Helmuth, Count von Moltke (1800-1891)	181	(9)
20 The First World War (1914-1918)	190	(25)
21 The Second World War (1939-1945)	215	(22)
22 The American War on North Vietnam (1965-1975)	237	(6)
23 The Falklands War (1982)	243	(6)
24 The Gulf War (January-February 1991)	249	(7)
Epilogue	256