Military Blunders: Wartime Fiascoes from the Roman Age Through World War I

by Steven Eden

110 color illus. 9 3/8 x 12 3/4. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1567991750
• ISBN13: 9781567991758
• Release Date: December 1899
• Publisher: MetroBooks (NY)
• Length: 120 Pages
• Weight: 2.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 9.7" x 13.0"

Customer Reviews

More than the title

Military Blunders is one of those books that provides more than the title implies. To begin it, it's a very readable, well-written account of fatal mistakes from the Roman defeat at Teutoberger Wald through Crecy, Pavia, Isandhlwana, and about 20 other battles, up through WWI. Each battle provides a few large-format pages of narrative, artwork, battle maps, and portraits. Many times, the blunder described is due to a commander's incompetence, but other times a lack of discipline among the troops or a simple error in geography led to disaster. But besides that, and saving the book from merely being an episodic collection of unrelated material, is Maj Eden's commentary on the changing nature of warfare -- so that one battle leads into the next. In so doing, Maj Eden manages to tie nearly 2000 years of military history into a concise, cohesive story. Good job!

great book

Well written, covers many battles throughout the world, well researched and lots of fun/interesting to read

Just 'cause you haven't seen it doesn't mean don't read it

This book lists many fine examples of the contradiction which the term "military mind" can be. In addition to covering many well known topics (Gettysburg, The charge of the Light Brigade, Custer's Last stand) We also see battles that might not be as well known to the passing historian (Spion Kop, Vaurs' defeat at Teutoberger Wald, Monongahela etc...) Small sub articles give little stories about other little miscues (The Bridge at Spitz)all of it is readable, well illustrated and written with a european rather than an american viewpoint. (Thus he classifeds the American indian wars as basically the same as the British Colonial wars and in doing so may be correct. The bottom line is the facts are well presented and easy on the eyes and brain without being lightweight. It informs and entertains. It is well worth a read.