Publisher's Synopsis
One of the greatest classics of military history ever written, produced by an English historian who understood the significance of race in history. The author selected fifteen battles which he considered as history-changing. Each chapter provides a detailed account of the preceding events, a blow-by-blow account of the battle itself, and its immediate consequences for European and world history. Five of the battles selected were critical to the survival of European civilization: - The Battle of Marathon (490 BC) which saw the ancient Greeks defeat an invasion from the mixed-race Persian Empire; - The Battle of Gaugamela (331 BC) which saw the Macedonians under Alexander finally defeat the Persians; -The Battle of Chalons (AD 451) where the Roman general, Aëtius, with his Gothic allies, defeated the Hunnish invasion of Europe; and - The Battle of Tours (AD 732) where the Franks under Charles Martel defeated the Muslim Moorish invasion of Western Europe. The other battles were all history changing in that they affected the direction of European civilization and which nation would dominate history. Although the author was a devoted English nationalist, he recognized the role which the United States of America would play in world events, and listed the Battle of Saratoga (AD 1777, the turning point in the American Revolution in favor of the rebels) as one of the fifteen great battles. Ironically, as the author points out, the American forces at Saratoga were led by a retired British army officer who had only moved to the Americas from England some seven years before that battle.
