Excellent View of Alexander | The Generalship Of Alexander The Great

Great Insight into Alexander's Military Exploits | The Generalship Of Alexander The Great | J.F.C. Fuller

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	• The Generalship Of Alexander The Great J.F.C. Fuller Da Capo Press, 2004 - 352 pages average customer review:based on 19 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Fascinating and Insightful

"The Generalship of Alexander the Great" is a fascinating book on Alexander the Great's life, political leadership and generalship. It was written by Fuller, a retired British General who is a world renowned military historian.

Alexander was a unique leader who inspired his men to perform extraordinary feats and who was highly revered. He led from the front and his presence had decisive sway on his troops. He could quickly read a tactical situation and make decisive moves that would change the course of battle in his favour. His troops were highly mobile and adaptable to various tactical situations.

This is a well researched book with the author citing various credible sources to reinforce his claims and arguments. The book can be easily understood by anybody with an interest in Alexander the Great. The author provides the reader with background information about Macedonia, Persia and other places, has maps which indicate the geographical areas referred to in the campaigns as well as the background to Alexander himself, among other useful details and insights.

From the study of Alexander the Great, today's military commanders have a lot to learn, just as Caesar, Napoleon and Hannibal and others carefully studied Alexander and emulated and adapted some of his methods and techniques to good effect.

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Excellent View of Alexander

There are many biographies of Alexander the Great out there. Most tend to look at his influence on the the times he lived in, as well as his legacy to the world. There are many ways to view the Macedonian juggernault. Here we have a unique perspective by a reknowned military historian. JFC Fuller takes Alexander's career and provides a first-rate look and analysis. The book is divided into two roughly equal parts. The first section provides a fast moving mini-bio of his life, emphisizing the major battles and campaigns of Alexander. The depth here is lacking, and purposely so, as this information is only provided in order to follow the discussion of his generalship.

Alexander exercised a unique kind of leadership. In addition to leading from the front in battle, he also combined the abilities of general and statesmen all in one person. In battle Alexander's presence was a decisive influence. He had an innate ability to read a tactical situation, and adapt it to the abilities of his Macedonian army. Its important to understand how important this army was to Alexander's strategy. Without this carefully crafted force which his father, Philip II created, Alexander could not have accomplished what he did. Fuller helps us to understand this by showing how Alexander used this army as a tool for all his endeavors. Its important to remember how much the Macedoonian army out-classed its Persian and Indian opponets. It was also a very versatile army, able to operate in almost any circumstances.

We see Alexander's brilliance both in major and minor battles and campaigns. This book is a must have for the Alexander specialist. It can serve as a useful guide for any of the numerous biographies out there which tend to gloss over many of the details of his generalship. Highly recommended for Alex buffs, and for the recent interest generated by the new movie on this subject.

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Great Insight into Alexander's Military Exploits

There are many great books about Alexander the Great out there and this one certainly ranks along with the very best. Alexander is many different things to different people, but if there is one thing that the big majority could agree on, it's that Alexander was one of the greatest military commanders (if not THE greatest) of all time and this book focuses on the military aspects of his most astounding career. J.F.C. Fuller is considered one of the best military historians of the 20th century and it's refreshing to read the insights from someone with a thorough military background instead of the opinions from a classical history scholar. Alexander was great at many things but it was as a military leader that he really stood out and this book focuses on that aspect instead of delving into so many other areas as other books tend to do.

I've read many books about Alexander the Great and it's easy to notice the difference between the writings of someone with a military background like Fuller and Peter G. Tsouras and those of "pure" college scholars. This book isn't as thorough as a biography as those from historians dedicated to ancient Greece and Rome, but that's what I liked about this book. It reads fast and is informative without bogging you down with so many names, places, and high-browed academia that seem to be more about impressing other scholars than informing the general reader. When I read some of the "scholarly" books about Alexander, I can't help but think that these historians are simply trying to out-do the other with their opinions than really trying to present objective history.

Surely, Fuller sits in the positive camp and he focuses on Alexander's achievements, strategies, and tactics from a military leader's perspective rather than a college professor's. Fuller doesn't delve into moral ramblings like so many historians seem to do these days. We get the facts and the expert analysis from someone who knows the military inside out, not bookworms sitting in a college office or the home den. You get the insights of someone who understands war, who has been on the front lines with other soldiers, and who knows what it's like to face the enemy and death itself. My beef with historians who sit on some moral high horse and criticize Alexander is that they don't know what it's like to be a soldier, which is what Alexander was - first and foremost. And that's why I believe this book is significant.

Some critics charge that Alexander was a reckless commander who endangered not only his life but those of his soldiers. Well, let's look at the results. Alexander was often heavily outnumbered - sometimes as much as 6 to 1 or even 10 to 1 - but Alexander and the Macedonian army won virtually every battle decisively with minimum losses while the enemies suffered catastrophic casualties. The enemies often suffered 10~20 times as many casualties as Alexander's army did. To those who criticize Alexander's "recklessness" as a general, what would YOU have done to do even better and save more Macedonian lives? Of course, these people wouldn't have a clue but it's easy for them to sit in their easy chair or a school desk and say, "I could have done better."

This book is written by a renowned military general and historian and that means a lot. You can't quite compare that to most books written by university scholars who have no idea what it's like to put one's own life on the line as a soldier in times of war. Fuller writes and extrapolates from the perspective of a soldier, a general, and a leader of men in battle. I just can't see how anyone who hasn't been a soldier can understand what that's really like. Fuller illuminates the mind of the soldier as well as that of Alexander himself as a leader. This book isn't the definitive biography about Alexander, but if you want to read a detailed analysis of Alexander's military battles, campaigns, and achievements from a lifelong military man, it doesn't get any better than this.

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In a brief and meteoric life (356-323 BC) the greatest of all conquerors redirected the course of world history. Alexander the Great accomplished this feat with a small army-no more than 40,000 men-and a constellation of bold, revolutionary ideas about the conduct of war and the nature of government. In a style both clear and witty, Fuller imparts the many sides to Alexander's genius and the full extent of his empire, stretching from India to Egypt.

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