A01=Cathal J. Nolan
Author_Cathal J. Nolan
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=JWK
Category=NHW
Category=NL-HB
Category=NL-JW
COP=United States
Discount=15
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
Format=BC
Format_Paperback
HMM=210
IMPN=Oxford University Press Inc
ISBN13=9780190931513
Language_English
PA=Available
PD=20190315
POP=New York
Price_€10 to €20
PS=Active
PUB=Oxford University Press Inc
SMM=40
Subject=History
Subject=Warfare & Defence
WG=855
WMM=141
Product details
- ISBN 9780190931513
- Format: Paperback
- Weight: 862g
- Dimensions: 140 x 208 x 40mm
- Publication Date: 23 May 2019
- Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc
- Publication City/Country: New York, US
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
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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 decent 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 as 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.
Cathal J. Nolan is Associate Professor of History and Executive Director of the International History Institute at Boston University. In addition to editing six books on international history, Nolan is the author of Principled Diplomacy: Security and Rights in U.S. Foreign Policy and Wars of the Age of Louis XIV. He is also the sole author of several multi-volume encyclopedias on military and international history.
