100 Turning Points in Military History: The Critical Decisions, Key Events, and Breakthrough Inventions and Discoveries That Shaped Warfare Around the World

by Alan Axelrod author of How America Won World War I

Overview

The typical military history presents a chronicle of battles and wars and the commanders and troops who fought them. This book takes a different approach. It presents battles and wars and people aplenty, but they are not its ultimate subjects. This book is about the turning points that not only make military history dynamic but crucial to the story of humanity and civilization. This book is about the decisions, acts, innovations, errors, ideas, successes, and failures that shaped the evolution of military art and science—strategy, tactics, and technology—and, in doing so, shaped the course of world history.

Here are the 100 points—from the birth of warfare in the Battle of Megiddo, 1457 BC, to the ongoing evolution of military history on its newest battlefield, cyberspace—at which the path of the warrior decisively turned on its long journey to where we find ourselves today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493059485
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	08/13/2021
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	1,053,162
Product dimensions:	8.60(w) x 5.60(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Alan Axelrod is the author of many books on leadership, history, and military history, including 100 Turning Points in American History (Lyons Press, 2019), Miracle at Belleau Wood (Lyons Press, 2018), The Battle of the Somme (Lyons Press, 2016), The Battle of Verdun (Lyons Press, 2016), and Selling the Great War: The Making of American Propaganda (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009). He has taught at University of Iowa (Iowa City, IA), Lake Forest College (Lake Forest, IL), and Furman University (Greenville, SC) and was most recently a creative consultant and on-screen commentator for The Great War, on the PBS American Experience television series. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

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

Editorial Reviews

About Miracle at Belleau Wood (Lyons Press, 2007):

“Axelrod is one of America’s great military historians. He’s done it this time with riveting non-stop action that reads like the best of Hemingway’s frontline reports plus the Marine Corps novels of W. E. B. Griffin. Axelrod pushes you right into the action, onto the battlefield, and never lets up. You become a firsthand witness to one of the world’s great battles, proud and heart-pounding as the elite force, the Devil Dogs, are born in a small forest outside Paris. This is one book I wish I’d written!”

—Paul B. Farrell, JD. PhD, syndicated columnist for DowJones’s MarketWatch and former staff sergeant, USMC

“Alan Axelrod has perfectly captured the embodiment of U.S. Marines and their unparalleled esprit de corps … As a former Marine, I find Axelrod’s descriptions of the combat in that bloody battle for which the Corps became legendary—and which is the foundation of its mythic lore—compelling and gut-wrenching. Miracle at Belleau Wood puts the reader in the front row, witness to the heroism and ups and downs endured by the Marines as they defeated the Germans at overwhelming odds. A must read!”

—Lt. Col. Jay Kopelman, USMCR (Ret.), best-selling author of From Baghdad with Love

“Axelrod brings us back vividly to the shocking casualties of ‘the war to end all wars,’ opening up fresh insights into the nature of the fighting and the decisions that shaped a generation.”

—Bing West, correspondent for The Atlantic, award-winning author of ten bestselling books on the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, former Marine, and former Assistant Secretary of Defense

In ‘‘Miracle at Belleau Wood: The Birth of the Modern U.S. Marine Corps,” Alan Axelrod has demonstrated his mastery at portraying battle at its most brutal and bloodiest. The fight for Belleau Wood is like a bayonet in the belly every step of the way. The distant mirror that Alan Axelrod shows us reflects the fearful face of life and death in World War I.

—Paul Weishaupt, Marines: The Corps’ Official Magazine, October-December 2007

About Patton’s Drive: The Making of America’s Greatest General (Lyons Press, 2009):

“Like Patton at his best: [Alan Axelrod’s writing is] polished, precise, and persuasive.”—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher