Sun Tzu at Gettysburg: Ancient Military Wisdom in the Modern World - Hardcover

Alexander, Bevin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393078132 ISBN 13: 9780393078138

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2011

Synopsis

Ten major battles or campaigns that could have been won by using the principles of The Art of War.

Imagine the impact on world history if Robert E. Lee had listened to General Longstreet at Gettysburg and withdrawn to higher ground instead of sending Pickett uphill against the entrenched Union line. Or if Napoléon, at Waterloo, had avoided mistakes he'd never made before. The advice that would have changed the outcome of these crucial battles is found in a book on strategy written centuries before Christ was born.

Lee, Napoléon, and Adolf Hitler never read Sun Tzu's The Art of War; the book only became widely available in the West in the mid-twentieth century. But as Bevin Alexander shows, Sun Tzu's maxims often boil down to common sense, in a particularly pure and clear form. The lessons of contemporary military practice, or their own experience, might have guided these commanders to success. It is stunning to see, however, the degree to which the precepts laid down 2,400 years ago apply to warfare of the modern era. Maps

About this title

About the Author

Bevin Alexander is the author of How Great Generals Win, Lost Victories, and Inside the Nazi War Machine. He lives in Bremo Bluff, Virginia.

Review

“On display is Alexander’s penchant for counterfactual history, which will pique military-history readers as Alexander imparts different scenarios for how the Revolutionary War, Waterloo, the Civil War, WWI, WWII, and the Korean War could have turned out.” — Booklist

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0393078132
• ISBN 13: 9780393078138
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304