The Allure of Battle: A History of How Wars Have Been Won and Lost - Hardcover

Nolan, Cathal J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195383788 ISBN 13: 9780195383782

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2017

Synopsis

History has tended to measure war's winners and losers in terms of its major engagements, battles in which the result was so clear-cut that they could be considered "decisive." Marathon, Cannae, Tours, Agincourt, Austerlitz, Sedan, Stalingrad--all resonate in the literature of war and in our imaginations as tide-turning. But were they? As Cathal J. Nolan demonstrates in this magisterial and sweeping work, victory in major wars usually has been determined in other ways. Even the most legendarily lopsided of battles did not necessarily decide their outcomes. Nolan also challenges the hoary concept of the military "genius," even of the Great Captains--from Alexander to Frederick and Napoleon--mapping instead the descent into total war.

The Allure of Battle systematically recreates and analyzes the major campaigns among the Great Powers, from the Middle Ages through the 20th century, from the fall of Byzantium to the defeat of the Axis powers, tracing the illusion of "short-war thinking," the hope that victory might be swift and conflict brief. Such has almost never been the case. Even one-sided battles have mainly contributed to victory or defeat by accelerating erosion of the other side's defenses, resources, and will.

Massive conflicts, the so-called "people's wars," beginning with Napoleon and continuing until the end of World War II, have been more fundamentally determined by prolonged stalemate and attrition, wars in which the determining factor was not tactical but industrial.

Nolan's masterful book places battles squarely and mercilessly within the context of the wider conflict in which they took place. In the process it help corrects a distorted view of their role in war, replacing popular images of "decisive battles" with somber appreciation of the sacrifice and endurance necessary to victory. Accessible, provocative, exhaustive, and illuminating, The Allure of Battle will spark fresh debate about the history and conduct of warfare.

About this title

About the Author

Cathal J. Nolan is Professor of History and Director of the International History Institute at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. He publishes future military fiction under the pen name Kali Altsoba, whose Orion War series has reached seven novels.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0195383788
• ISBN 13: 9780195383782
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 728