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ISBN-10: 0-486-41129-X
ISBN-13: 9780486411293
Publisher: Dover Publications
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Year: March 27, 2000
Size: 12.95 x 21.08 x 2.03cm
Number of pages: 352
Weight: 363gr
Binding: Paperback
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An eminent historian profiles 16 decisive struggles from ancient and modern times—conflicts that forever changed the course of world events. Gripping accounts range from Alexander the Great’s overthrow of the Persian empire in the fourth century b.c. to World War II’s Battle of Midway. With dramatic flair, Pratt depicts the full panorama of circumstances leading up to the decisive clashes, the historical personalities involved, and the battles’ historically important aftermath. 27 maps.
reviews
Fletcher Pratt makes history come alive in these short, challenging chapters. He gives many counterintuitive explanations, which always makes it an exciting read. He explains how life would be much different if the outcomes were different.
I loved this book as a teenager, and read it several times. But ongoing reflection, as well as teaching and graduate study in history, leads me to offer a more qualified recommendation. Pratt's core idea, that warfare can decisively affect the course of history, is quite sound. But his rather offhand view of war outside the Western world is not supportable. Pratt asserts that truly decisive battles influencing history occurred only in the West; elsewhere, victories changed nothing, and usually victors were simply absorbed by the societies they subjected.
This notion sadly reinforces an ethnocentric view that non-Western peoples somehow stand outside history, and that nothing ever really changes for them. Like many specialists in US and European history glancing at the whole world, Pratt proceeds from inattention and/or ignorance in generalizing, even stereotyping, on topics beyond his expertise. Such an assertion plainly overlooks many examples of the decisive character of warfare in Asia and Africa, with or without European participation---the conquests of Jinghiz Khan and his successors, Japan's conquest of Singapore in 1942, Ethiopia's 1896 triumph over Italy at Adowa, the effects of slaving wars in Africa, etc.
Pratt renders persuasive accounts of decisive Western battles in clear, lively prose. But misjudging the miltary experience of the rest of the world weakens his case, which through fuller research could be extended fruitfully to encompass the globe. The whole subject requires further examination; there's plenty of work for numerous scholars to tackle, and this should ultimately show that Pratt's thesis is indeed applicable on a worldwide scale. Ultimately, military historians have moved beyond the Alexandrian/Napoleonic conception of decisive battlefield victory to an appreciation of the total process of war in winning conflicts.
For more on the nonhistorical »nature« of non-Western societies and the processes which integrated them into a European-dominated global system, read Eric Wolf, »Europe and the People Without History« and Chinweizu, »The West and the Rest of Us.« For Asians' and Africans' encounter with Western military technology, strategy and tactics, see Geoffrey Parker, »The Military Revolution« and Daniel Headrick, »The Tools of Empire.« M. Saul & P. Royer, »West African Challenge To Empire« & J. Thornton, »Warfare in Atlantic Africa« show how African wars were actually fought.
Like A SHORT HISTORY OF THE CIVIL WAR, Pratt's BATTLES THAT CHANGED HISTORY is a terrific entry-level volume, especially for the young reader. He combines a snappy, thrilling writing style with a keen ability to explain complex historical situations and an original thesis about the role of military power in world history.
The key to this book is the phrase »Changed History« in the title. In his introduction, Pratt takes pains to distinguish his list of battles from those of the progenitor of the genre, Sir Edward Creasy, whose »Fifteen Decisive Battles« provided the inspiration for Pratt's work. Pratt notes that so many famous Western battles (e.g. Hastings or Tours) actually played a defensive or reinforcing role in history rather than »changing history.« This insight leads Pratt to choose some battles that many might view as eccentric (e.g. Beneventum, the original »Pyrrhic victory«, rather than, say, Zama, which ended the Second Punic War). It is Pratt's rationale for these choices, expressed in clear, crisp prose, that makes this book so valuable for younger readers in need of a boost in their motivation to read history.
Few writers can make history read like a story while at the same time educate with a multitude of facts. Pratt is one and this book is an excellent example.
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