History's Great Military Blunders and the Lessons They Teach

Martial Chaos

I'm a military history buff and a US Army veteran, so I really couldn't have asked for a more apt "The Great Courses" lecture series. It's thing to read a translation of Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" (approximately 5th century BCE), an aspirational guide to tactical warfare that's travelled the millennia well. It's quite anther to fearlessly examine some of the most painful military debacles in history and take meaning from what's written in blood . "History's Great Military Blunders and the Lessons They Teach" (Gregory S. Aldrete, PhD) is a neat survey course of things that have gone militarily very, very, wrong for more than two millennia.

The lectures range from The Battles of Syracuse (415-414 BC) to World War II's Operation Market Garden (1944). Some are obvious, often repeated errors. Napoleon's 1812 winter invasion of Russia was about as successful as Charles XII of Sweden's 1707 invasion of the same country. The 1854 storied, tragic Charge of the Light Brigade is about attacking the wrong target. Some of the disasters of World War II were almost too painful to listen to. I remember hearing war stories first-hand from veterans in my grandparents' small town, and to know that sometimes their sacrifices were wasted hurts.

I like that the lectures aren't Eurocentric - one of the best is on the 2nd Century Red Cliffs Campaign of the brilliant but merciless Chinese General Cao Cao. Even the strongest of tyrants don't always prevail. I got a kick out of the lecture on 1879 Isandlwana: 25,000 Zulus, Undetected. It was horrifying to Victorian England, especially the post-battle mutilation (actually, a sign of respect: the Zulu Warriors were releasing the spirits of the slain soldiers), but a century and a half later, it's a study in absolute arrogance and the triumph of what must have been derided then as "savages."

I would definitely listen to another one of Professor Aldrete's courses.

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203 of 212 people found this review helpful

Hindsight Bias?

The professor does an outstanding presentation of his material.

I have to wonder, though, whether many of these blunders are hindsight bias. For example, we only distinguish rashness from boldness when the endeavor succeeds or fails; there may be no way to determine which description applies beforehand.

Many of the behaviors that the professor describes also precede great successes as well as failures, and it's only when failure occurs that they look stupid. The problem is that we don't keep data on stupidity followed by success, which makes it look artificially easy to determine when you're screwing up.

94 of 101 people found this review helpful

Awesome as Aldrete's usual !!!

After listening to "Decisive battles" from the same author, I knew I had to listen to this title as well.

If you want to learn college-level history, With the ease of just curling up with a good book that is beautifully narrated this is the course for you.

27 of 30 people found this review helpful

Good, not Great. (Almost No Analysis)

This should be titled 'History's Great Military Blunders (Full Stop)' because there is almost no discussion on the lessons that they teach. In a typical lesson, 95% of the lecture is the story of the blunder and 5% is an analysis of that blunder. This does make for a great, story-time approach to history. However, you won't actually get that much from the professors "insights".

I liked this course, but just know that it's just story-time.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

Great material, Shatner-esque delivery

This is fascinating material! However, while the narrator clearly has mastered the material, his delivery is... full of... awkward... pauses, strange pronunciations, and odd turns of phrase. He's clearly reading the material, which would be fine if the delivery was not so distracting!

17 of 19 people found this review helpful

Great book

Great book,informative I loved it. Our public schools should be ashamed for missing the opportunity do teach real history

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

Great Stories

This course is comprised of 23 great historical stories and one final lecture sort of tying the stories together. Very easy to listen to and stay engaged.

9 of 10 people found this review helpful

Very Interesting

What made the experience of listening to History's Great Military Blunders and the Lessons They Teach the most enjoyable?

The premise for these lectures is just great. You listen to how these commanders and others invovled make error after error resulting in a horrible defeat of their forces. Spanning time from ancient Egypt to WW2 there are a ton of interesting stories here.

What did you like best about this story?

The various accounts are presented with a ton of insight into the people involved, the time, the customs, etc.

What about Professor Gregory S. Aldrete, PhD’s performance did you like?

Dr. Aldrete is a great lecturer and often includes a comic touch when presenting these tales. I had listened to his history of the ancient world course as well and highly recommend it if you are interested in standard history.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I blew through these vary fast and some are quite comical.

Any additional comments?

Very entertaining.

7 of 8 people found this review helpful

Legitimate 5 stars

I am a big fan of The Great Courses. That being said, not all are worthy of 5 star reviews... unless they feature Professor Aldrete.

6 of 7 people found this review helpful

Great Blunders, But Not Necessarily THE Greatest

This is good overview of great military blunders. They all fit the author's hypothesis, yet there are missing examples which could replace more than one event to more effective purpose. Cannae was full of Roman blunders. It is missing. Tetuburg may not have been decisive, but it was a blunder of major dummieness. He chose Carrhae. I suspect the author had to choose between significant Roman blunders. But Cannae is the most obvious example. Agincourt should have been the 100 years war choice because it was the third time France used the same tactics which failed twice already. Those are just two examples of my bias.

I wish there had been a PDF available for this listen. It would be helpful simply to refer to later. All in all though, it is well written and well narrated. I highly recommend it especially for those who are new to the subject of Military history.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful