Veteran history author Alan Axelrod brings investigative skills as well as a historian’s eye to bear on eighteen largely forgotten but fateful conflicts. Each chapter carefully delineates the context of the war in question—the origins of the dispute, the motivations of the opposing forces—and incorporates vivid and arresting accounts of pivotal battles, clearly explaining each side’s maneuvers and tactics, while capturing the chaos and carnage of warfare.

Fascinating details bring the conflicts to life: the blue war paint with which ancient Britons daubed themselves to terrorize their Roman enemies, the seemingly innocuous request that sparked the Peasants’ War in sixteenth-century Germany, the uncompromising code of honor followed by Japanese samurai. And legendary, little-understood figures are fleshed out: Russian Czar Ivan the Terrible; German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck; the English spy known as Lawrence of Arabia.

Filled with more than 75 archival maps, illustrations, and paintings from around the world. An in-depth and gripping read for people who want to know more about important historical events.