Masters of Warfare - Fifty Underrated Military Commanders from Classical Antiquity to the Cold War

Masters of Warfare - Fifty Underrated Military Commanders from Classical

Antiquity to the Cold War written by Eric G. L. Pinzelli and published by

Pen & Sword Books - £25 - Hardback - Pages 336

In Masters of Warfare, Eric G. L. Pinzelli presents a selection of fifty commanders whose

military achievements, skill or historical impact he believes to be underrated by modern

opinion. He specifically does not include the household names (the ‘Gods of War’ as he

calls them) such as Alexander, Julius Caesar, Wellington, Napoléon, Rommel or Patton

that have been covered in countless biographies.

Those chosen come from every period of recorded military history from the sixth century BC to the Vietnam War. The selection rectifies the European/US bias of many such surveys with Asian entries such as Bai Qi (Chinese), Attila (Hunnic), Subotai (Mongol), Ieyasu Tokugawa (Japanese) and Võ Nguyên Giáp (Vietnamese). Naval commanders are also represented by the likes of Khayr al-Dīn Barbarossa, Francis Drake and Michiel de Ruyter.

These 50 “Masters of War” are presented in a chronological order easy to follow, with a concise overview of their life and career. Altogether they present a fascinating survey of the developments and continuities in the art of command, but most importantly their contribution to the evolution of weaponry, tactic and strategy through the ages.

This book takes a look at military commanders throughout time, men who excelled at strategy, tactics and leadership. The author Pinzelli also openly admits that he has tried to look at the lesser leaders in war, so not your Caesar, Napoleon or Wellington. Then added to that, the book has tried not to have a western bias but concentrate more on an Asian or Eastern theme. Now my knowledge of the Eastern theatre of war isn’t the best yet, but I did enjoy learning more about various military leaders I hadn’t heard of before. So yes, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and I will use this as a good reference book. I suppose my only disappointment was that I would like to see a balanced book from all battles so we could clearly see who the real top military leaders were. A really good book, one for the military enthusiasts.