100 Decisive Battles: From Ancient Times to the Present: Book Review

I've always been a  fan of looking at hypotheticals.  Harry Turtledove is one of my favorite authors, and alternative history one of the genres I gravitate towards.  Its probably a large reason why in college I was pulled to study Chaos and its associated branches of uncertainty in mathematics.   The old poem has always stuck with me

For Want of a Nail

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.  
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.  
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the message was lost.  
For want of a message the battle was lost.
 For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
 And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

It fits that just like in nature, in the course of human events there are many touch points where history could change.  Many of these points are key battles, where one side had every advantage and failed to capitalize, inspiring new nations to rise in place of the old.  Finding good records of the order of battle, the historical setting and the ramifications of them is always tough to do.  There are a lot of books out there about a particular battle here or there, but not many that trace from antiquity to the modern era.  Paul K Davis has collected 100 of these battles in his 1999 book 100 Decisive Battle.  The book lays out each battle in a clear way, naming the opposing forces and their commanders, giving a quick one line abstract of the impact of it.  It then sets up the preceding history, giving a nice overview of how the combatants came to battle.  The descriptions are not overly specific, but give a good overview of the order of battle and where tactics failed or won the day.  It then ends with well described outcomes from the battle, and some speculation of how things might have been had the battle gone the other way.  The book starts at Megiddo and ends in the modern era, with the Gulf War.

I really enjoyed this book quite a bit.  It covers many of the well know turning points that most people could name (Marathon, Thermopylae, Orleans, Waterloo, Dunkirk, Pearl Harbor etc).  These are essential to any list of the most history changing military moments.  It however covers many battles that had severe effect that are not so well documented.  The Battle of Crecy, for example in 1346 was an early battle in the Hundred Years War, that marked the beginning of the end for the mounted Knight as the main set piece on European battlefields.  Had the French taken the defeat in earnest and changed their military organization to mach that of the English, perhaps Orleans would not have needed Joan to save it.  The book does an excellent job of covering battles across Europe, North America, South America and Asia.  It misses any tribal warfare in Africa though, with only European participants being mentioned.  That being said, I agree with the choice of battles and was pleased with the choices of battles I didn't know as well that were featured.  This is an excellent piece of military history, and allows the reader to get an overview of places they might want to study more.