The Military 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Military Leaders of All Time

Identifies and ranks military leaders based upon their "immediate and lasting impact" on the lives of people and on world history

Retired Army colonel Lanning (Senseless Secrets, Carol Pub. Group, 1995) gives a new twist on who's who among military leaders. Lanning not only provides concise biographies of his selected 100 military leaders but also takes the bold step of ranking them from one to 100, in the order of their enduring influence on world history. The selected 100 span 15 centuries of warfare, from Attila the Hun (#15) to Norman Schwarzkopf (#49) and include both heroes and villains, innovators and heretics. Hitler is ranked rather high at #14, while Kim Il Sung is a lowly #86. As expected, George Washington is ranked first on the list; lone female, Joan of Arc, is #43. This is a grand list, filled with the famous and infamous and even some obscure men like Lennart Torstensson and Thomas Cochrane. As a clever approach to military history, this is recommended for the general reader.?Col. William D. Bushnell, USMC (ret.), Harpswell, Me.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Retired infantryman Lanning, author of several books on Vietnam, now tackles a wider canvas--all of history--to survey and rank the 100 most influential military figures. His criteria for inclusion measure not only battlefield prowess but also the long-term consequences of the specific leader's actions for the world, by which criteria George Washington outstrips Napoleon, and both Saddam Hussein and Adolph Hitler find places on the list. The biographies themselves are definitely capsule but definitely sound, balanced, well researched, and clear. Every reader will find at least one nonfavorite among the top 100 and the 50 honorable mentions and at least one favorite left out. But as an intelligent soldier-historian's roster of the movers and shakers of warfare, this book itself ranks high and will find readers in virtually any collection that includes it. Roland Green