Strategy

Description

“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.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 Wars—Epaminondas, Philip, and Alexander
III. Roman Wars—Hannibal, Scipio, and Caesar
IV. Byzantine Wars—Belisarius and Narses
V. Medieval Wars
VI. The Seventeenth Century—Gustavus, Cromwell, Turenne
VII. The Eighteenth Century—Marlborough 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”The most important book by one of the outstanding military authorities of our time.”—Library Journal

“No man has devoted more concentrated thought to the nature and problems of strategy.”—The New York Times Book Review
 
“A major work… bristles with challenges to the mind.”—Saturday Review
 
“Brilliant… a classic in military literature.”—Marine Corps Gazette
 
Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart, commonly known as Captain B. H. Liddell Hart, was an English soldier, military historian, military theorist, and author of many books, including Strategy, The German Generals Talk, The Memoirs of Captain Liddell Hart, and History of the Second World War.US

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