Brian Holden Reid

A definitive biography that sheds light on the life and times of one of the Civil War's most important generals. William Tecumseh Sherman, a West Point graduate and veteran of the Seminole War, became one of the best-known generals in the Civil War. His March to the Sea, which resulted in a devastated swath of the South from Atlanta to Savannah, cemented his place in history as the pioneer of total war. In The Scourge of War, preeminent military historian Brian Holden Reid offers a deeply researched life and times account of Sherman. By examining his childhood and education, his business ventures in California, his antebellum leadership of a military college in Louisiana, and numerous career false starts, Holden Reid shows how unlikely his exceptional Civil War career would seem. He also demonstrates how crucial his family was to his professional path, particularly his wife's intervention during the war. He analyzes Sherman's development as a battlefield commander and especially his crucial friendships with Henry W. Halleck and Ulysses S. Grant. In doing so, he details how Sherman overcame both his weaknesses as a leader and severe depression to mature as a military strategist. Central chapters narrate closely Sherman's battlefield career and the gradual lifting of his pessimism that the Union would be defeated. After the war, Sherman became a popular figure in the North and the founder of the school for officers at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, known as the "intellectual center of the army." Holden Reid argues that Sherman was not hostile to the South throughout his life and only in later years gained a reputation as a villain who practiced barbaric destruction, particularly as the neo-Confederate Lost Cause grew and he published one of the first personal accounts of the war.

William Tecumseh Sherman, a West Point graduate and veteran of the Seminole War, became one of the best-known generals in the Civil War. His March to the Sea, which resulted in a devastated swath of the South from Atlanta to Savannah, cemented his place in history as the pioneer of total war. In The Scourge of War, preeminent military historian Brian Holden Reid offers a deeply researched life and times account of Sherman. By examining his childhood and education, his business ventures in California, his antebellum leadership of a military college in Louisiana, and numerous career false starts, Holden Reid shows how unlikely his exceptional Civil War career would seem. He also demonstrates how crucial his family was to his professional path, particularly his wife's intervention during the war. He analyzes Sherman's development as a battlefield commander and especially his crucial friendships with Henry W. Halleck and Ulysses S. Grant. In doing so, he details how Sherman overcame both his weaknesses as a leader and severe depression to mature as a military strategist. Central chapters narrate closely Sherman's battlefield career and the gradual lifting of his pessimism that the Union would be defeated. After the war, Sherman became a popular figure in the North and the founder of the school for officers at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, known as the "intellectual center of the army." Holden Reid argues that Sherman was not hostile to the South throughout his life and only in later years gained a reputation as a villain who practiced barbaric destruction, particularly as the neo-Confederate Lost Cause grew and he published one of the first personal accounts of the war. A definitive biography of a preeminent military figure by a renowned military historian, The Scourge of War is a masterful account of Sherman' life that fully recognizes his intellect, strategy, and actions during the Civil War.

The American Civil War (1861-65) was the bloodiest war of the nineteenth century and its impact continues to be felt today. It, and its origins have been studied more intensively than any other period in American history, yet it remains profoundly controversial. Brian Holden Reid's formidable volume is a major contribution to this ongoing historical debate. Based on a wealth of primary research, it examines every aspect of the origins of the conflict and addresses key questions such as was it an avoidable tragedy, or a necessary catharsis for a divided nation? How far was slavery the central issue? Why should the conflict have errupted into violence and why did it not escalate into world war?

John Frederick Charles Fuller (1878-1966), British soldier, military analyst, and war historian, is considered the father of modern armored (tank) warfare - first as planner of the attack at Cambrai in November 1917, and then as author of a number of works that challenged traditional British military thought. His ideas were resisted in his own country but had a major impact on German and Soviet military doctrine. Sir Basil Liddell Hart (1895-1970) was also a British military historian and analyst of note and authored influential military histories covering figures from Scipio Africanus to Field Marshal Rommel. In the twelve analytical essays in "Studies in British Military Thought", Brian Holden Reid examines these two figures whose ideas have influenced the interpretation of events in military history from antiquity to the Cold War. He compares and contrasts their views on tactics, operational art and strategy, and war as a social phenomenon. Additionally, he discusses the radically different temperaments of the two and shows how their differences shaped their work in important ways.In so doing, he continues to bring their ideas to students and practitioners of modern warfare and raises fundamental issues concerning the nature of war. Brian Holden Reid, acknowledged on both sides of the Atlantic as the leading expositor of the ideas of General Fuller, is Senior Lecturer in War Studies at King's College, University of London. He is the author of "J. F. C. Fuller: Military Thinker".

This book consists of sixteen pieces, by British scholars, on aspects of the American (and Anglo-American) experience.

Brian Holden Reid now considers afresh the military thought of Major-General J.F.C.Fuller - a pioneer of tank warfare and one of the most important military thinkers of the twentieth century. With a wealth of documentation, much of it previously untapped, Dr Reid explores Fuller's formative experiences, showing how his early life, his service in the Boer War and in India, and his friendships with many alienated intellectuals, including the notorious Aleister Crowley, combined to shape his mental outlook and, eventually, his study of the phenomenon of war.