Product Description

Hans Delbruck's four-volume History of the Art of War is recognized throughout the world as the definitive work on the subject. Appearing in an English-language paperback edition for the first time, volume 1 analyzes in vivid detail the military tactics and strategies used by the great warriors of antiquity. Delbruck disputes some points in classical history and separates fact from legend in his objective reconstruction of celebrated battles stretching from the Persian Wars to the Peloponnesian War, Alexander's campaign to conquer Asia, the Second Punic War and Hannibal's crossing of the Alps, and the triumph of the Roman legions and Julius Caesar. Walter J. Renfroe Jr. based his much-praised English translation on the third (1920) edition of volume 1.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #603388 in Books
• Published on: 1990-04-01
• Original language: German
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 604 pages

Review
Delbruck is internationally regarded as the first modern military historian. History of the Art of War, considered a classic, is his foundational achievement. Renfroe's translation retains the spirited erudition of the original German and renders it into elegant and readable English. Beyond a doubt a landmark in twentieth-century historical literature."--Arden Bucholz, author of Hans Delbruck and the German Military Establishment "Undergraduates, military buffs, professional soldiers, as well as historians will all enjoy this readable and often elegant translation ... of a classic history... Highly recommended."--Choice "This intensive study will be useful for those familiar with the military and political history used by the author as background. In an excellent translation... Renfroe has pointed out the very rare errors or oversights within the body of the text; his highly readable translation manages to retain the flavor of the original."--Library Journal

Customer Reviews

A wonderful historical guide
I could practically exhaust every superlative in the english vocabulary in prescribing this set of books to anyone interested in understanding the shape of battles and the conflicts involved going back to the Greco-Persian Wars to the Napoleonic Wars. In each book, Delbrük, the consummate modern historian, laboriously constructs as accurate a mantle of the major battles of each conflict meticulously seperating propaganda and myth arriving at the available facts. Delbrück's history is definitely not the digest of novices, and his detached, pedantic scholarship can be overwhelming at times unless you have at least some familiarity with the subject matter. Nevertheless, his forensic masterpiece, really a very long treatise or series of treatise on the evolution of tactical bodies, are of an unparalleled stature, and his conclusions seem to still be in some contention today as they were a hundred years ago.

Or, at least, current textbooks have yet to catch up. Some histories still seem to follow Xenephon and Herodotus precisely, and I saw a documentary last year about Ceasar's campaign in Gaul that still portrayed the Romans at the siege of Alesia outnumbered 25 to 1 against the Celtic tribes.

Warfare in Antiquity, the first volume, is especially helpfull and stands next to my copies of Livy, Thucydides, Polybius, Herodotus, Arrian, etc. - all the classical histories.

A fantastic book on late Roman military history
If you are passionate about history or military history, and if you are keen to understand how the powerful Roman civilisation transitioned to a European feudal society, then this book is for you.

Hans Delbruck writes at the end of the 19th century and follows the steps of other excellent German historians such as Mommsen. The book, though, could well have been written yesterday. Delbruck's erudition is simply incredible, and the author's intimate knowledge of ancient languages, including old German, allowed him to systematically cross-check what little remains of manuscripts written between the 3rd and 6th century AD.

For the reader, the most enjoyable aspect of the narrative is perhaps that it goes right down to a level of details rarely seen in a history book. Following Delbruck's thread of reasoning you can well imagine how Roman legions lived and fought, and how German tribes were socially organised. You can also easily understand the process by which these formidable Roman legions slowly dissolved and how the German political, social and military systems progressively took over in the course of four centuries.

The topic itself is extremely complex, not least because of the scarcity of reliable contemporary testimonials. The legends and exagerated tales of huge German hordes crossing the Rhine to destroy a flourishing civilisation are nowadays so entrenched in our Western culture that it takes the patience and intelligence of someone like Delbruck to disentagle the facts.

Finally, be warned that this is no historical romance. Delbruck's style is as dry and precise as Germanic scientific litterature can be, and each section is followed by an Excursus in which the author argues around alternative theories.

Highly recommended.