The Battle That Shook Europe

And in the wealth of detail in this immensely readable book lies the greater history of the 17th and 18th centuries."--Jacket.

In 2009, the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute gathered scholars from around the globe and from various fields of study to mark the 300th anniversary of the Battle of Poltava. This collection of their papers provides a fresh look at this watershed event and sheds new light on the legacies of the battle's major players.

In terms of resource mobilization and devastation the wars between Russia, the Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Empire were some of the largest of the 18th century, and had enormous consequences for the balance of power in Eastern Europe. Brian Davies examines how these conflicts characterized the course of Russian military development in response to Ottoman and Crimean Tatar threats and to determine under what circumstances and in what ways Russian military power experienced a "revolution" awarding it clear preponderance over the Ottoman-Crimean system. A central part of Davies' argument is that identifying and explaining a Military Revolution must involve examining the role of factors not purely military. One must look not only at new military technology, new force and command structure, new tactical thinking, and new recruitment and military finance practices but also consider the impact of larger demographic, economic, and sociopolitical changes.

Time and again, the course of Western civilization has been forever changed by the outcome of a clash of arms. In this thought-provoking volume, the eminent author and historian Fletcher Pratt profiles 16 decisive struggles from ancient and modern times, ranging from Alexander the Great’s defeat of the Persians at the Battle of Arbela to World War II’s Battle of Midway, in which U.S. forces halted the Japanese advance. Each of these conflicts, despite considerable variations in locale and warfare techniques, represents a pivotal situation — a scenario in which a different outcome would have resulted in a radically changed world. On history’s broad canvas, Pratt paints dramatic portraits of battles fought by Roman legions, French archers, American rebels, and myriad other soldiers and sailors. In addition to gripping accounts of the actual battles, the author describes the full panorama of events leading up to the decisive clashes, as well as their historically important aftermath. Readers will also find fascinating facts and anecdotes about a dazzling cast of personalities associated with these epochal struggles, including Joan of Arc, Frederick the Great, Lord Nelson, Ulysses S. Grant, and many more. Enhanced with 27 maps by Edward Gorey, and recounted with dramatic flair by a born storyteller, these authoritative narratives will appeal to students, historians, military buffs, and all readers interested in the forces that influence the tides of human history.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER SHORTLISTED for the 2021 Lionel Gelber Prize Thoughtful and brilliant insights into the very nature of war--from the ancient Greeks to modern times--from world-renowned historian Margaret MacMillan. War--its imprint in our lives and our memories--is all around us, from the metaphors we use to the names on our maps. As books, movies, and television series show, we are drawn to the history and depiction of war. Yet we nevertheless like to think of war as an aberration, as the breakdown of the normal state of peace. This is comforting but wrong. War is woven into the fabric of human civilization. In this sweeping new book, international bestselling author and historian Margaret MacMillan analyzes the tangled history of war and society and our complicated feelings towards it and towards those who fight. It explores the ways in which changes in society have affected the nature of war and how in turn wars have changed the societies that fight them, including the ways in which women have been both participants in and the objects of war. MacMillan's new book contains many revelations, such as war has often been good for science and innovation and in the 20th century it did much for the position of women in many societies. But throughout, it forces the reader to reflect on the ways in which war is so intertwined with society, and the myriad reasons we fight.

An intimate narrative history of World War I told through the stories of twenty men and women from around the globe--a powerful, illuminating, heart-rending picture of what the war was really like. In this masterful book, renowned historian Peter Englund describes this epoch-defining event by weaving together accounts of the average man or woman who experienced it. Drawing on the diaries, journals, and letters of twenty individuals from Belgium, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Venezuela, and the United States, Englund’s collection of these varied perspectives describes not a course of events but "a world of feeling." Composed in short chapters that move between the home front and the front lines, The Beauty and Sorrow brings to life these twenty particular people and lets them speak for all who were shaped in some way by the War, but whose voices have remained unheard.