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History's Great Military Blunders and the Lessons They Teach cover art

History's Great Military Blunders and the Lessons They Teach

By: The Great Courses,Gregory S. Aldrete
Narrated by: Gregory S. Aldrete
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Summary

Military history often highlights successes and suggests a sense of inevitability about victory, but there is so much that can be gleaned from considering failures. Study these crucibles of history to gain a better understanding of why a civilization took - or didn't take - a particular path. Full of dramatic reversals of fortune and colorful characters, this course examines some of the world's most notable examples of military misfortune, from the humiliating destruction of a Roman army at Carrhae in 53 BC to the tragic landings at Gallipoli in World War I. Success and failure, as you'll learn, are two sides of the same coin.

These 24 lectures reveal how the trajectory of history hangs in the balance of individual battles; even a single person's actions in a particular moment have made drastic and irreversible impacts. From ancient Greece through global war during the first half of the 20th century, you'll delve into infamous conflicts such as the Charge of the Light Brigade and the Battle of Little Bighorn as well as lesser-known battles.

How could an army equipped with cannon be wiped out by Zulu warriors wielding spears and outdated firearms? How could armored French knights be vulnerable to the crude weapons of a band of Flemish shopkeepers? Why would a savvy Chinese general fall victim to a tactic he had previously used himself? Unpredictable twists of fate abound, demonstrating that when it comes to war, there are no givens. Sheer numbers, superior weaponry, and skilled leadership are never a guarantee of success.

Take a fascinating journey through some of the most gloriously inglorious wartime encounters. Along the way, you'll get to know some of the most legendary characters in world history.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2015 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2015 The Great Courses

What listeners say about History's Great Military Blunders and the Lessons They Teach

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  • Overall
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  • JJ
  • 30-11-15

Interesting content with a truly awful narration.

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

A more fluid narration! The guy who reads this audiobook is very clearly reading the content from a script. His speech stops and starts and emphasises in all the wrong places. Its like listening to William Shatner struggling with a script !

If the book was read by somebody who could speak in a steady and confident manner it would fare much better, but sadly the narrator of this version sounds robotic, unusual, stuttering and impossible to listen to with any amount of concentration.

What was one of the most memorable moments of History's Great Military Blunders and the Lessons They Teach?

I'm not sure. Because I was so put off by the narrator's manner of speaking I stopped listening after a few chapters. The chapter about the battle of the Crater was quite interesting i guess.

Who might you have cast as narrator instead of Professor Gregory S. Aldrete, PhD?

Stephen Fry? Patrick Stewart? Quite frankly anyone who can hold together a deep, wise, and unwavering tone.

You didn’t love this book--but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The content itself was relatively interesting - its just a shame it was presented in such a mispronounced, stuttering, odd and disjointed fashion.

Any additional comments?

Dont buy it unless you can put up with slow reading and mispronunciation.

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

British military disaster

It's well narrated but if you are fan ok the uk it may annoy you in parts its seems 3/4 of the blunders are British. I'm not patriotic but even I grew tired of constant British blunders

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Fascinating material ruined by woeful narration

This could have been a fantastic audio book. The content is compelling but the narrator removes any possibility of enjoying this book. He sounds as if each individual word has been recorded and pieced together, disrupting any possible fluidity. Such a shame.

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5 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

More of a University Lecture than a Book...

... but still thoroughly enjoyable for a history nerd. Of course, it missed a few "blunders" that I would have considered pivotal in world history, such as the Third Reich's advance into Russia, and George Meade's failure to pursue the defeated Confederate Army immediately following Gettysburg, but all the lectures came together in the end very nicely and a solid point was made that I can't argue against.

... Even if the blunders committed by British generals were hard pills to swallow!

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4 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Learn how to pronounce names!

Painful! Very interesting but find it very hard to take a historian seriously that A/ can't be bothered to learn how to pronounce names like Culloden and B/ thinks England and Great Britain are some how interchangeable after 1707, very shoddy and annoying. Makes me question some of accuracies of the rest of the information... Very disappointing...

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

A good overview of some key battles

I won’t confess to being a history buff, but the battles covered spanned the planet and took places at different times throughout history. A good listen.

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful recounting of history

even with my ani-war sentiments I really enjoyed this lively, well told and analysed account of war history. The hours flew past!

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Superficial and disappointing.

This is a greatest hits of military defeat related by a presenter who is quite personable, presents well and has an excellent speaking voice.

The material however is very superficial, almost at the level of a wiki article and there is no serious attempt at analysis. The analysis is tacked on at the end and feels like an after thought. There’s no attempt to contextualise the material, no systemisation of the presentation (using a NATO standard planning format would help) and the presenter makes some howlers (not to blame him, he’s a classicist presenting outside his field) which are hard to take. There is also no attempt to understand why the commanders might have made the mistakes they made or consider their thought processes.

The last third of the material is weirdly Anglo-centric, but that’s a trivial complaint.

“Military Disasters” by Julian Spilsbury (sadly not available in audio) covers much the same material in a more compact package with analysis of a far higher calibre.


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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Valuable lessons for life.

Very enjoyable and informative. A few mis-pronunciations of English place names and ranks but otherwise very good.

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  • W
  • 23-11-23

Crassus and Gallipoli

Fantastic bite size briefs of historical blunders which I throughly enjoyed listening too. My son also enjoyed it.

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