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Author: Erik Durschmied
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.
ISBN: 1628721774
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 497
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Book Description
From the wooden horse at Troy to a harrowing photograph snapped in Vietnam, from Robert E. Lee’s lost battle plans to the evacuation of Dunkirk, world history has been shaped as much by chance and error as by courage and heroism. Time and again, invincible armies fall to weaker opponents in the face of impossible odds, when the outcome had seemed a foregone conclusion. How and why does this happen? What is it that decides the fate of battle? Writing with the style and flair that has made him an award-winning war correspondent, Durschmied takes us through the major battles of history, from the battlefields of ancient Greece to the Gulf War. In a series of gripping narratives, he vividly recreates the crucial events in all their mayhem and confusion while pointing out the decisive moments that changed the course of history. We see Agincourt, where rain combined with French arrogance to give Henry V the day; the Crimea, where a badly worded order led to the disastrous charge of the Light Brigade; and colonial Africa, where an attack by African killer bees, described by the London Times as Germany’s secret weapon, repulsed an Allied invasion. And in a chilling epilogue, we are given a disturbing glimpse of the secret attempt by Libya to buy atomic weapons from China for use against Israel. Drawing from a variety of sources, including personal accounts such as soldiers’ diaries and letters home, The Hinge Factor is an instructive, fascinating look at how the unpredictable, the absurd, and the bizarre have shaped the face of history in war.
Author: Erik Durschmied
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.
ISBN: 1628721774
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 497
Get Book
Book Description
From the wooden horse at Troy to a harrowing photograph snapped in Vietnam, from Robert E. Lee’s lost battle plans to the evacuation of Dunkirk, world history has been shaped as much by chance and error as by courage and heroism. Time and again, invincible armies fall to weaker opponents in the face of impossible odds, when the outcome had seemed a foregone conclusion. How and why does this happen? What is it that decides the fate of battle? Writing with the style and flair that has made him an award-winning war correspondent, Durschmied takes us through the major battles of history, from the battlefields of ancient Greece to the Gulf War. In a series of gripping narratives, he vividly recreates the crucial events in all their mayhem and confusion while pointing out the decisive moments that changed the course of history. We see Agincourt, where rain combined with French arrogance to give Henry V the day; the Crimea, where a badly worded order led to the disastrous charge of the Light Brigade; and colonial Africa, where an attack by African killer bees, described by the London Times as Germany’s secret weapon, repulsed an Allied invasion. And in a chilling epilogue, we are given a disturbing glimpse of the secret attempt by Libya to buy atomic weapons from China for use against Israel. Drawing from a variety of sources, including personal accounts such as soldiers’ diaries and letters home, The Hinge Factor is an instructive, fascinating look at how the unpredictable, the absurd, and the bizarre have shaped the face of history in war.
Author: Erik Durschmied
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Chance
Languages : en
Pages : 394
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Book Description
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781606711644
Category : Battles
Languages : en
Pages : 394
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Book Description
Author: Erik Durschmied
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 162872644X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 420
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Book Description
From the Trojan Horse to a photograph snapped in Vietnam, world history has been shaped as much by chance and error as by courage and heroism. Despite impossible odds, invincible armies fall in bitter defeat to weaker opponents. How and why does this happen? What decides the fate of battle? In this fascinating book, Erik Durschmied takes us through the major conflicts of history—from Agincourt to the Civil War, from Crimea to the Gulf War—and reveals how, in war, it is the improbable and the inconceivable that determine events. Writing with the style and flair that made him an award-winning war correspondent, Durschmied explores the fistful of nails that could have won Waterloo for Napoleon; the barrel of schnapps that proved disastrous for an Austrian emperor; and the three cigars that changes the course of Antietam; and many other instances when chance decided history’s path. Conflicts are decided by the caprice of weather, erroneous intelligence, unlikely heroism, strange coincidence, or individual incompetence—in short, by the unpredictable “hinge factor.” Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.
Author: Everest Media,
Publisher: Everest Media LLC
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 57
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Book Description
Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The world is still recovering from the attack on America on September 11, 2001. The American president rallied his nation’s support with a Let’s get the bastards! He then ordered the invasion of Afghanistan against an unclear enemy. #2 In the story of Troy, Paris, the prince of Troy, visited by three goddesses who handed him a golden apple, asking him to choose the fairest among them. He chose Helen of Sparta, and brought her to Troy. The Greeks then invaded and laid siege to the city. #3 The Trojan War was a result of the Greeks’ disregard for the warnings by the philosopher Laocoön. The war was a series of raids, and possibly actions fought by sea. The ten-year siege could not have lasted ten continuous years without harvesting seasonal grain, which armies on both sides would have starved without. #4 The Hinge Factor at Troy was victory by stratagem. The Greeks learned from the Trojans, Trojan refugees founded Rome, and the Romans conquered Greece, only to adopt its culture.
Author: Lee Thayer
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 9781456812904
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 165
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Book Description
"People create and sustain myths to explain what they cannot or do not comprehend. They sometimes create myths to make simple what would otherwise strike them as being too complex to bear in mind. Thus we have our ancient gods and our contemporary celebrities, and the fairy tales that explain them. But there is never one cause for what happens no matter how much we might treasure our formulaic myths. Anything that happens has many seen and unseen causes. Leadership is an ideal example. We conceive of our leaders as the cause of how things turn out. If things turn out badly, we blame them. If they turn out well, we elevate them to celebrity-hood. This is fairy-tale thinking. The hard truth is that our leaders cannot be any more competent in their role than we are in ours. Even then our leaders do not control the outcomes. We are following a dangerous path in the way we think about our leaders in this culture. We need to be able to distinguish between real leaders and counterfeit leaders. This book reveals how to do that. This book powerfully and insightfully unveils the myth of the leader."
Author: John Mattausch
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351529536
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 232
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Book Description
Chance is real. Not only is it a cause of societal change, but we as individuals are chance-given characters who discover and build our character in chancy circumstances. Chance is also expressed as coincidence and contingency, expressions which have episodically been of undeniable historical importance. Mattausch asserts the conventional picture of societal change is incorrect. Societal change is not a linear succession with each phase of change replacing its predecessor. Instead, the process is one of accumulative change in which chance plays various roles. Chance, Character, and Change develops the idea of chance, situating it within the history of thought and social change. By focusing strictly on manifestations of chance and of luck that can be seen and explained, Mattausch is able to show how chance acts in the environment of evolution and the social practices that regulate the inheritance of knowledge and technology. This, in turn, steers societal change and how change itself occurs. Chance's role is often characterized as coincidence or contingency, and this automatically is seen as progressive or degenerate. However, Mattausch notes that accumulative change is potentially both progressive as well as decadent. Chance also plays a part in the social aspects of our world--customs, practices, cultures, societies, and politics. When we act, Mattausch argues, we do not distinguish between good and bad, but rather between determinism and chance; the latter is a test of character, not of free will. This theory is general in its assertions and application, and can be related to many areas of study from economic theory, to human behavior, to politics. The rich texture of the writing and vivid use of examples from daily life and the work of other major thinkers draw in the reader. The most striking aspect of this work is the author's writing style and the way he weaves together evidence, classic research, and contemporary thought. It is skillfu
Author: K. Henshall
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230583792
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 355
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Book Description
Focusing on pivotal points in Early British History, this book examines the role of folly and fortune in major events in Britain from Caesar's expeditions to the Norman Conquest. By examining the foolishness in a bygone age, Henshall draws attention to how human behaviour - with all its erraticisms – has helped shape history.
Author: Peter J. Beck
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 023036411X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 368
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Book Description
Who reads academic histories? Should historians reach out more beyond academia to the general public? Why do Hollywood films, historical novels and television histories prove more successful in presenting the past to a wider audience? What can historians do to improve their effectiveness in reaching and engaging their target audience in a digital age? The way history is presented to an audience is often taken for granted, even ignored. Presenting History explores the vital role played by presenters in both establishing why history matters in today's world and communicating the past to audiences within and outside academia. Through case studies of leading historians, historical novelists, Hollywood filmmakers and television history presenters, this book looks critically at alternative literary and visual ways of presenting the past as both academic history and popular history. Historians discussed include Stephen Ambrose, Niall Ferguson, Eric Hobsbawm, Robert A. Rosenstone, Simon Schama, Joan Wallach Scott and A.J.P. Taylor. Chapter topics include Hollywood and history; Michael Bellesiles' controversial history of gun rights in the USA; Philippa Gregory's historical novels; historians and the David Irving trial; and Terry Deary's 'Horrible Histories'. Raising serious questions about the nature, study and communication of history, Presenting History is an essential text for historians and history students, as well as anyone involved in listening to, reading, or watching presenters of the past.
Author: Dominic D. P. Johnson
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674039173
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 358
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Book Description
How do people decide which country came out ahead in a war or a crisis? Why, for instance, was the Mayaguez Incident in May 1975--where 41 U.S. soldiers were killed and dozens more wounded in a botched hostage rescue mission--perceived as a triumph and the 1992-94 U.S. humanitarian intervention in Somalia, which saved thousands of lives, viewed as a disaster? In Failing to Win, Dominic Johnson and Dominic Tierney dissect the psychological factors that predispose leaders, media, and the public to perceive outcomes as victories or defeats--often creating wide gaps between perceptions and reality. To make their case, Johnson and Tierney employ two frameworks: "Scorekeeping," which focuses on actual material gains and losses; and "Match-fixing," where evaluations become skewed by mindsets, symbolic events, and media and elite spin. In case studies ranging from the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and the current War on Terror, the authors show that much of what we accept about international politics and world history is not what it seems--and why, in a time when citizens offer or withdraw support based on an imagined view of the outcome rather than the result on the ground, perceptions of success or failure can shape the results of wars, the fate of leaders, and the "lessons" we draw from history.
