Synopses & Reviews
"The most important book by one of the outstanding military authorities of our time." Library Journal
This is the classic book on war as we know it. During his long life, Basil H. Liddell Hart was considered one of the world's foremost military thinkers--a man generally regarded as the "Clausewitz of the 20th century." Strategy is a seminal work of military history and theory, a perfect companion to Sun-tzus The Art of War and Carl von Clauswitzs On War.
Liddell Hart stressed movement, flexibility, and surprise. He saw that in most military campaigns dislocation of the enemy's psychological and physical balance is prelude to victory. This dislocation results from a strategic indirect approach. Reflect for a moment on the results of direct confrontation (trench war in WW I) versus indirect dislocation (Blitzkreig in WW II). Liddell Hart is also tonic for business and political planning: just change the vocabulary and his concepts fit.
Synopsis
The most important book by one of the outstanding military authorities of our time.--Library Journal Strategy is a seminal work of military history and theory, and a perfect companion to Sun-tzu's The Art of War and Carl von Clauswitz's On War.
This is the classic book on war as we know it. During his long life, Basil H. Liddell Hart was considered one of the world's foremost military thinkers. In his writing, he stressed movement, flexibility, and surprise. He saw that in most military campaigns, it was vital to take an indirect approach. Rather than attacking the enemy head-on, one must dislocate their psychological and physical balance. With key examples from World War I and World War II (think trench warfare vs Blitzkreig), Liddell Hart defines the practical principles of waging war--"Adjust your end to your means," "Take a line of operation which offers alternate objectives"--and proves they are as fundamental in the worlds of politics and business as they are in warfare.
Table of Contents
Preface to the Second Revised Edition
Preface
Part I: Strategy from Fifth Century B.C. to Twentieth Century A.D.
I. History as Practical Experience
II. Greek WarsEpaminondas, Philip, and Alexander
III. Roman WarsHannibal, Scipio, and Caesar
IV. Byzantine WarsBelisarius and Narses
V. Medieval Wars
VI. The Seventeenth CenturyGustavus, Cromwell, Turenne
VII. The Eighteenth CenturyMarlborough and Frederick
VIII. The French Revolution and Napoleon Bonaparte
IX. 1854-1914
X. Conclusions from Twenty-five Centuries
Part II: Strategy of the First World War
XI. The Plans and Their Issue in the Western Theatre, 1914
XII. The North-eastern Theatre
XIII. The South-eastern or Mediterranean Theatre
XIV. The Strategy of 1918
Part III: Strategy of the Second World War
XV. Hitler's Strategy
XVI. Hitler's Run of Victory
XVII. Hitler's Decline
XVIII. Hitler's Fall
Part IV. Fundamentals of Strategy and Grand Strategy
XIX. The Theory of Strategy
XX. The Concentrated Essence of Strategy and Tactics
XXI. National Object and Military Aim
XXII. Grand Strategy
XXII. Guerrilla War
Appendix I: The Strategy of Indirect Approach in the North African Campaign, 1940-42, by Major-General Eric Dorman-Smith
Appendix II: "For by Wise Counsel Thou Shalt Make Thy War." A Strategical Analysis of the Arab-Israel War, 1948-9, by General Yigael Yadin
Index of Deductions
Index