Table of Contents
Introduction xi
Battle of Megiddo: The Birth of Warfare (1457 BC) 1
Tiglath-Pileser III: The Birth of Military Civilization (745-727 BC) 4
Sun Tzu: The Birth of Strategy (c. 511 BC) 8
Spartans at Thermopylae: The Perfection of Military Civilization (480 BC) 11
Battles of Gaugamela and Hydaspes: Alexander Proves His Genius for War (331 and 326 BC) 17
Battle of Cannae: Hannibal's Masterpiece (216 BC) 22
Battle of Zama: Hannibal's Defeat (202 BC) 25
Reforms of Marius: The Roman Legion as Model for Military Organization (105 BC) 29
Spartacus: History's First Insurgent (73-71 BC) 33
The Gallic Wars: Caesar Rising (58-51 BC) 37
Crossing the Rubicon: Caesar Triumphant (49 BC) 40
The Pax Romana Begins: Rome Dominant (29 BC) 44
Battle of the Teutoburg Forest: The Limits of Imperial Militarism (AD 9) 46
Second Battle of Adrianople: The Western Empire Starts to Fall (378) 49
Battle of Châlons: The Turning Point That Might Have Been (451) 52
Battle of Tours: Muslims v. Franks (732) 55
Feudalism as a Military Civilization: Epoch of Knight, Armor, Sword, and Longbow (800-1200) 58
Rise of the Raid: Viking Warfare in Ireland, Britain, Western Europe, and Russia (800-1000) 62
Battle of Hastings: Why the Norman Conquest Matters (1066) 66
War as Pilgrimage: The First Crusade (1096-1099) 70
Genghis Khan: The "Perfect War Emperor" (1190-1227) 74
Battles of Liegnitz and Sajó River: Mongol Invasions of Europe (1241) 78
Swiss Victory at Morgarten Pass: Rise of the Pike and the Mercenaries (1315) 80
Battle of Crecy: Infantry Crushes Chivalry's Flower (1346) 83
Battle of Agincourt: When the Knights Fell (1415) 86
Joan of Arc in Command: The Power of a "Force Multiplier" (1429-1444) 91
Siege of Constantinople: Mehmed II Ascendant (1453) 96
Cortés Takes the Aztec Empire: Conquest Comes to the New World (1518-1521) 98
Babur Storms North India: Invasion Becomes Empire (1525-1526) 101
Battle of Mohács: Christian Europe at Bay (1526) 103
The Holy League Triumphs at Lepanto: Victory at Sea (1571) 106
Fate of the Spanish Armada: The "Friction of War" (1586-1588) 109
"Defenestration of Prague" Begins the Thirty Years' War: Old Europe Out the Window (1618) 114
Gustavus Adolphus at Zenith: Creating Military Supremacy (1631) 117
Total Warfare Sweeps New England: Race Wars in the Wilderness (1636-1678) 120
Condé v. Turrenne at the Battle of the Dunes: Clash of the Great Captains: (1658) 124
Battle of Blenheim: The Perfection of Alliance Warfare (1704) 128
Frederick the Great of Prussia: The Making of a Military Superpower (1740-1763) 132
France and Britain in India: Imperialism by Proxy War (1751-1760) 136
The Battle of Fort Necessity: Young George Washington Starts a World War (1754) 139
Frederick's Victory at Leuthen: "Masterpiece of Maneuver and Resolution" (1757) 143
Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill: An American Military Is Born (1775) 145
Battle of Trenton: Washington's Genius for War (1776) 149
USS Bonhomme Richard v. HMS Serapis: The One-Man Navy of John Paul Jones (1779) 152
Battles of Hondschoote, Menin, and Wattignies: Kingless Victories (1793) 157
From Toulon to Campo Formio: The Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte (1793-1797) 159
Tactics Triumphant: The Age of Napoleon, Clausewitz, and Mahan (1800-1850) 163
Barbary Wars: Fighting Terrorism (1801-1815) 167
Annus Mirabilis: Napoleons Brilliant Year (1805) 170
Battle of Trafalgar: Nelsons Fatal Masterpiece (1805) 173
Friedrich Krupp Starts a Steel Works: Artillery Becomes an Industry and War Is Transformed (1811) 177
From Moscow to Waterloo: Napoleonic Retreat (1812-1815) 180
Choosing War in 1812: America v. Britain (1812-1814) 184
Bolívan The Art of Liberation Warfare(1812-1825) 189
The Wars of Shaka Zulu: A Native Empire in Africa (1816-1828) 192
Scott Takes Veracruz: The U.S. Army Conducts Its First Amphibious Operation (1847) 194
The Great Mutiny in India: Birth of the British Raj (1857-1858) 198
Battle of Antietam: Lincoln Wins a Platform for Emancipation (1862) 201
The Battle of Gettysburg: The Civil War Finds Purpose: (1863) 205
Total War: William T. Sherman and the Calculus of Victory (1864-1865) 208
Battle of the Little Bighorn: Shock and Awe on the Northern Plains (1876) 212
Industrial Firepower: Hiram Maxim's Machine Gun (1884) 215
Battle of Wounded Knee: How the "Indian Wars" Ended (1890) 218
The USS Maine Explodes; Finding an Excuse for War (1898) 221
Boers Hold Off an Empire: The High Cost of Insurgent Warfare (1899-1902) 225
The Boxer Rebellion: Leveraging a Little War on China (1900) 228
The Naval Campaign of Tsushima: Japan Redefines Victory (1905) 232
Assassination in Sarajevo; Bringing a World to War (1914) 236
From Schlieffen Plan to the Miracle on the Marne: How the Fog of War Descends (1914) 239
Unrestricted: Submarine Warfare in World War I (1915-1917) 242
Exit the Russians, Enter the Americans: The Disruption of World War I (1917-1918) 247
Hurler Tactics: A German General Changes Modern Warfare at Riga (1917) 250
Rush to Disarm: The London and Geneva Conferences (1930-1934) 253
Rehearsal for a Second Act: The Spanish Civil War Goes Global (1936-1939) 256
Blitzkrieg: Germany's Combined-Arms Invasion of Poland (1939) 260
Winston Churchill Becomes Prime Minister: The Role of the Great Man in War (1940) 263
Total War: The Blitz, Battle of Britain, and Rationale for Strategic Bombing (1940-1945) 267
Enigma and Ultra: Information Becomes War's Ultimate Weapon (1939-1945) 271
The Aircraft Carrier: A New Platform for War (1942) 275
The Battle of Midway: What a Turning Point Looks Like (1942) 278
Holocaust: The Wannsee Conference Plans the "Final Solution" (1942) 282
Battle of Stalingrad: The Tide Turns on the Eastern Front (1942) 284
Operation Overlord and the D-Day Landings: Breakthrough from the West (1944) 288
Hiroshima, August 6: The New Wages of War (1945) 292
The National Security Act Is Passed: The United States Remodels Its Military (1947) 295
Berlin Blockade and Berlin Airlift: A Model Cold War Victory (1948-1949) 297
A Treaty Signed in Brussels: The Creation of NATO (1949) 300
The Birth of "Limited War": Finding a "Substitute for Victory" in Korea (1950-1951) 303
Battle of Dien Bien Phu: The Domino Theory Emerges (1954) 307
Herman Kahn Publishes On Thermonuclear War, Challenging the MAD Doctrine (1960) 309
The Cuban Missile Crisis: Strategy at the Thermonuclear Brink (1962) 312
The Arab-Israeli War of June 5-10: Three Fronts, Six Days, Total Victory (1967) 316
The Tet Offensive: Pyrrhic Victory in the Vietnam War (1968) 319
My Lai Massacre and the Pentagon Papers: The Road to an All-Volunteer Force (1969-1971) 322
Limits of Military Superpower: The Iranian Hostage Crisis (1979-1981) 326
The Gulf War: The Architecture of Coalition Warfare (1990) 328
From the F-117A to the Predator: The Rise of Stealth and Drone Weapons Technology (1989-1994) 332
The Bosnian War: European Tribalism (1992-1995) 335
"The First War of the Twenty-first Century": 9/11 and the Era of Endless American War (2001-) 338
The Bronze Soldier of Tallinn: Cyber Becomes the New Battlefield (2007) 340
Index 343