A History of Strategy from Sun Tzu to William S Lind

A History of Strategy from Sun Tzu to William S Lind
By Martin van Creveld
Published in March 2015
140 Pages
Thibault’s Score: 4/5


Before reading this book I wasn’t particularly interested in military strategy - I just read the book because it was short and I wanted to have a few more insights after my recent investigations into cyber warfare. Holy crap, was I amazed by the richness of the knowledge that this book contained - its style has left me hungry for more books about military strategy.


This book is written in very broad strokes, and is a perfect introduction. It covered many of the historical battles I have been previously reading about for the past several months such as the Roman reconquests of General Belisarius. It ends on cyber warfare, which is the topic which brought me to this book in the first place, bridging my passion for Roman history with my curiosity about Cyber Warfare.


The writing style is succinct, and up to the point. Sentences are short, and logically constructed. One can easily tell that the book was written by someone who has the mind of a strategist.


It also introduced me to the important historical thinkers in the history of warfare such as Sun Tzu, Clausewitz, Vauban, Douhet, and William S Lind. I had always heard of the name “Clausewitz” and vaguely knew that he was a military philosopher, but knew nothing about him. Reading this book has wetted my interest in strategy, and now I have to read Clausewitz.