Great Captains Unveiled

Lidell Hart was a pioneer in armored warfare and the purpose of this book is to illustrate six great military commanders in history and their contributions to manuver warfare.He starts off by discussing the mongols under Genghis Khan and Sabutai who used the concepts of speed,surprise and mobile firepower in their conquest of a large area of the Eurasian landmass.He illustrates that the mastery of these concepts enabled the mongols to build the largest land empire in history and destroy all kinds of enemies in war.Hart then discusses the French commander Marshal de Saxe who believed in using armor to support troops.He goes on to discuss Gustavus Adolphus whom he labels the father of Modern of warfare.Gustavus was a great tactician and superb administrator.Amongst the innovations that he brought to Europe were conscription,mobile artillery,a T formation and a superb combined arms formation.Gustavus is legendary because he saved the northern German Protestant states from defeat at the hands of the mighty Hapsburg dynasty.Lidell then goes on to discuss one of Gustavus' rivals ,the Czech Wallenstein whom he describes as the supreme poker player in the history of warfare.What is remarkable about Wallenstein is his rise to power.Being Czech,protestant and of minor nobility Wallenstein had almost no chance of becoming such a high ranking official,he succeeded by becoming one.Wallenstein was a master in surprise,manuver and psychological warfare.Whilst inferior to Gustavus in fighting skill and tactics ,he was far better strategist.Hart explains how he understood the value of seapower and how he bought Gustavus to heel simply by cutting across his lines of communications ,threatning his allies in the process and basically starving Gustavus's army.The last of the generals discussed is James wolfe,who defeated the French in Canada by performing an excellent feat of amphibious warfare.

Hart's writing is vivid and engaging. He paints exciting and informative images of some of the great captains in history and provides some interesting, though not always thoroughly historical, insights into the hows and whys of some great commanders.Of course his treatment of the broad strategies is always spot on, though he grinds a bit on his core thesis throughout his books a bit much, most of the time he is just preaching to the choir.Highly recommended!

Another excellent piece from BH. While his reputation has taken a hit in the past few decades in regards to his influence on historical events, and his alleged manipulation of the historical record to further that perception, he remains an excellent analyst and biographer. I have read probably a dozen of his works before getting to this one, and it has the usual high standard of good info and analysis on these somewhat neglected but outstanding commanders. The piece of Sabutai is worth the price of admission. Recommended for students of strategy and leadership.

Hart wrote the famous strategy book but in his examples he has to compress for time and brevity. This book is a easier read being more of a mixture of history that doesn't feel like it is compressed. The lessons of his Strategy book come to the fore in this book and the explanations become easier to grasp. Beyond that he is attempting to make a case for some great captains in history that are overlooked.

I find this book lacking in details and jump from one event to another thus making it VERY difficult to follow. Anyone wants to buy a partially read book ??! Dull dull dull.

Wafare philosophy enthusiasts will love Liddell Hart's works. This classic work containing the seeds of blitzkrieg and maneuver warfare theory will resonate especially with those who admire those schools of thought. The first chapter on Jenghiz Khan and Sabutai is alone worth the price of the book. A brilliant piece of military history and theory that still resonates with thinkers today.

gave it as a gift, they loved it

I was expecting much more on Genghis Khan & Subatai. They were a small portion of the book.

A good read