Art of War in the Middle Ages A. D. 378-1515

An excellent example of how people always want to re-fight the last war. Whenever someone in the Middle Ages would come up with a new tactical innovation, they would dominate for awhile before being swept aside by the next innovation. Everyone thought that their winning method was the end all solution to victory in war and therefore refused to change. The French, British, Swiss, Spanish, Italians, Poles, Hungarians and Bohemians are all shown staying with what has always worked even when it has ceased to work. The Byzantine are held up as the exception to this pattern in that they used tremendous skill and flexibility to preserve their empire against terrible odds for more than 500 years. The book also points out very well that, other show more than among the Byzantines, the sophistication of tactics sunk to a very low level after the Roman period. Tactical thinking was crude in the extreme (sending a small force around behind the enemy was considered bold and brilliant). Strategy was nonexistent until near the end of the period. First written as an essay in 1885 and later expanded into a book. Was very influential in the early 20th Century. The book is on Patton's reading list. show less