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Title: Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian Army by Donald W. Engels ISBN: 0-520-04272-7 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: February, 1981 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.56 (9 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Alexander needed this book
Comment: This book is something that I haven't seen written for hardly any military time period, let alone Alexander's. A very excellent treatment on a subject that is normally difficult to find 'facts' about.
Rating: 5
Summary: should be required reading for everyone
Comment: I am amazed how much history made sense after reading this simple and short book. They should make every high school student (and everyone older who is mildly interested in history) read the first 40 pages of this book.
As children, we have a simplistic conception of war as a series of battles where everyone is willing to go anywhere to fight to the death in order to determine an absolute winner. Actually meeting the enemy on the battlefield is as easy as telling the bully to meet you by the swings after school. Teachers of history do very little to dispel this misconception, which is quite pathetic because we fail to understand much of the significance of the history we are taught (which in high school and early college focuses heavily on military conflicts).
What this book does in the first 40 pages or so is clearly illustrate how logistics (transporting food, water, and equipment) SEVERELY restricts WHERE you can go, HOW (and how fast) you can get there, HOW LONG you can stay there, and HOW MANY soldiers you can take with you. These constraints will obviously impact the generals' decisions on when to fight and how to fight. The problems of logistics will limit the length of the conflict and even who you can choose to fight with. Reading the book made me truly understand the saying, "an army travels on its stomach."
Reading the book, I could finally appreciate how logistics must have shaped the outcomes of key points in history; and how technology (ships, land transport, rise of agricultural surplus which can feed a traveling army, etc.) can facilitate and limit warfare.
Once again, I can't help but be utterly amazed that logistics does not get more attention by historians and by teachers. This short little book will do wonders for your appreciation and "rounding out" of the history that you were taught in school.
Rating: 5
Summary: VERY interesting and VERY detailed.
Comment: This book is very important. Supply and logisitics are VERY important to any military history and here it is! The book starts out with a general chapter on the Macedonian army and its logistic system (such as how much food the army needed, the time needed to rest and feed the animals, how fast it moved and the methods that could be used to deliver and transport such supplies needed by the men and animals). The other chapters deal with each region, for example Chapter 2 deals with how the system worked in Greece and Turkey, based on archaeological work done in Asia, careful study of the landscape, climate and the military operations carried out by Alexander. The Appendixs deal with such subjects such as rations and routes taken by the army. Along with 16 maps in the end, the tiny book, only about 194 pages long, is STUFFED full of data. It is a must for any fan of Alexander the Great or anybody into military history.
A great book to read along with J.F.C. Fuller's 'The Generalship of Alexander the Great'.
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Title: The Generalship of Alexander the Great by J. F. C. Fuller ISBN: 0306803712 Publisher: DaCapo Press Pub. Date: September, 1989 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
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Title: Alexander of Macedon 356-323 B. C.: A Historical Biography by Peter Green ISBN: 0520071662 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: September, 1992 List Price(USD): $17.44 |
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Title: The Genius of Alexander the Great by N. G. L. Hammond ISBN: 0807847445 Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Pr Pub. Date: August, 1998 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Supplying War : Logistics from Wallenstein to Patton by Martin van Creveld ISBN: 0521297931 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 12 December, 1979 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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Title: The Campaigns of Alexander by Arrian, Flavius Arrianus, Aubrey De Selincourt ISBN: 0140442537 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: October, 1976 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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