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Battle Studies: Ancient and Modern Battle by Ardant du Picq



du Picq gives insightful ideas on some ancient battles and the campaigns he witnessed during his lifetime. The book, which is both a commentary as well as a treatise on tactics in ancient and modern war, is divided into two major sections and includes a supplementary section of the author's related works.

The first part is about ancient battles. du Picq highlights the major battles of Hannibal and Julius Caesar by differentiating the battle formations and the value of morale. However du Picq's main focus is the importance of understanding man's mind under pressure. The second part is more technical. It discusses combat methods, weapons, cavalry and infantrymen. This part of the book might be confusing to the reader not familiar with the battles and names in du Picq's time.

The book does not focus on technical stuff like the correct battle formations, weapons, and others. The author emphasized several times that although the weapons and times have changed, even the reasons for fighting, the heart of man is still the same. Casual readers will not easily appreciate the second part but it has more specific discussions by the author. The appendix also has an interesting section about the development of small arms. du Picq's approach to explaining how battles were and can be won showed that the understanding of man's psychology is more effective than looking at what can be improved in the weapons and formation used by the men.

Rating: 7 out of 10
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