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Rating: 
Summary: Excellent review, very relevant today
Review: Gabriel and Boose start out with the hope that they can make the study of military history relevant in an age of precision guided munitions and CNN. At this, they succeed brilliantly. Starting with the first well-recorded battle, at Meggido, they effectively span 3500 years of combat to detail the advances, reverses, and stalemates of military fortune.Each chapter covers a separate battle or related series of battles. It begins by describing the societies that went to war, their politics, economy, organization, and weapons. Then, the authors describe the strategic situation that led to war between the antagonists, the goals of both sides, and the value of victory and cost of defeat. Once strategy is out of the way, they deal in great depth with the tactics used in each battle, with an emphasis on the major developments of a given era, whether technical, tactical, or operational. Finally, they give a list of "lessons" from each battle. Overall, the book is excellent for students of both ancient and modern military thought. I especially enjoyed the first chapter, which gave a chronology of weapons, armor, supply, and typical casualties. It really changes your view from the typical Hollywood picture of ancient warfare. Who knew that most were not injured in the battle, only to be slaughtered once their side broke to flee? One negative is the "lessons" section of each chapter. Rather than draw direct parallels with contemporary policy, the authors give a laundry list of ideas and principles. These are generally informative in the context of the specific battle, but are too vague to work as a textbook for modern practitioners of conflict. The real value is in drawing these parallels for yourself, which the superb organization of the rest of the text makes quite easy.
Rating:
Summary: At what price .....
Review: I just finished this book and found it to be an excellent survey of "The Great Battles of Antiquity." However, as insightfull and informative as the analyis IS in this volume, if I had to do it all over again I would get a collection of much cheaper paperbacks on the various campaigns.
Rating:
Summary: At what price .....
Review: I just finished this book and found it to be an excellent survey of "The Great Battles of Antiquity." However, as insightfull and informative as the analyis IS in this volume, if I had to do it all over again I would get a collection of much cheaper paperbacks on the various campaigns.
Rating: 
Summary: Waaaaay Overpriced
Review: This is an enjoyable and very informative look at ancient warfare, from the beginning of recorded history to the fall of Constantinople in 1453. The title of the book is somewhat misleading in that this really isn't a series of essays on individual battles, it is actually a bit more encompassing. Instead of Cannae, for example, we get the entirety of the Second Punic War. There are chapters on the campaigns of Caesar and Alexander, there are chapters on the Greek way of war, (both with the Persians and among themselves), the Chinese way of war, the Japanese way of war, and the Swiss way of war. And there are chapters having to do with individual battles: Hastings, Megiddo, Teutoburg forest, etc. As far as I can tell, they didn't miss anything important, although I'm sure there are some experts out there who would disagree. The chapters are nicely set up in that they first give you an overview of the societies and personalities involved. They then go into a detailed discussion of the weapons, armor and tactics, followed by a detailed examination of the battles themselves. Following this, the discussion has to do with lessons learned, one of which and perhaps the most important is that in order to win a war, an army must have the unqualified support of its citizens. No matter how great the general, no matter how powerful the army, it is destined to ultimately lose unless it can count on its citizens and its government. It is a great book, but the question is, is it worth the price? Look above. Does the almost exorbitant amount of money they're asking for this seem like a typo? Well it's not. That is the price. But why? When I bought it, I assumed that the book would be oversized, with glossy paper perhaps, and with colored illustrations. Perhaps I would hang onto it for a few years, then present it as a gift to some precocious teenager to pique his interest in ancient warfare. But no. The book is standard sized, about 700 pages, with stock paper, and with black and white lined drawings and maps. Nothing more. So, again, is it worth it? You want my answer? Well, here it is: no.
Rating:
Summary: Waaaaay Overpriced
Review: This is an enjoyable and very informative look at ancient warfare, from the beginning of recorded history to the fall of Constantinople in 1453. The title of the book is somewhat misleading in that this really isn't a series of essays on individual battles, it is actually a bit more encompassing. Instead of Cannae, for example, we get the entirety of the Second Punic War. There are chapters on the campaigns of Caesar and Alexander, there are chapters on the Greek way of war, (both with the Persians and among themselves), the Chinese way of war, the Japanese way of war, and the Swiss way of war. And there are chapters having to do with individual battles: Hastings, Megiddo, Teutoburg forest, etc. As far as I can tell, they didn't miss anything important, although I'm sure there are some experts out there who would disagree. The chapters are nicely set up in that they first give you an overview of the societies and personalities involved. They then go into a detailed discussion of the weapons, armor and tactics, followed by a detailed examination of the battles themselves. Following this, the discussion has to do with lessons learned, one of which and perhaps the most important is that in order to win a war, an army must have the unqualified support of its citizens. No matter how great the general, no matter how powerful the army, it is destined to ultimately lose unless it can count on its citizens and its government. It is a great book, but the question is, is it worth the price? Look above. Does the almost exorbitant amount of money they're asking for this seem like a typo? Well it's not. That is the price. But why? When I bought it, I assumed that the book would be oversized, with glossy paper perhaps, and with colored illustrations. Perhaps I would hang onto it for a few years, then present it as a gift to some precocious teenager to pique his interest in ancient warfare. But no. The book is standard sized, about 700 pages, with stock paper, and with black and white lined drawings and maps. Nothing more. So, again, is it worth it? You want my answer? Well, here it is: no.
Rating:
Summary: Good primer but details are sometimes fudged to fit theory
Review: This survey of 31 ancient battles is tailored to fit the "lessons learned" or principles of war approach used in traditional military academy texts. It is a handy introduction to the battles in light of the Art of War but the reader should be cautioned that the authors seemed limited to (based on the limited bibliographical lists) secondary sources and these do not usually reflect the latest or most accurate scholarship. This is particularly important regarding ancient military history where the original source material itself has to be cross-checked with many other accounts since ancient authors or editors were so often biased or simply uninformed. If you are looking for a handy review of ancient and dark age battles in general, this is a good place to start. However, if you need to research a particular region or campaign, by all means go to specialist studies and don't limit yourself to those suggested in this survey. Jim Bloom
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