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    How Chance and Stupidity Have Changed History: The Hinge Factor
    Unavailable
    How Chance and Stupidity Have Changed History: The Hinge Factor
    Unavailable
    How Chance and Stupidity Have Changed History: The Hinge Factor
    Ebook452 pages7 hours

    How Chance and Stupidity Have Changed History: The Hinge Factor

    By Erik Durschmied

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    From the Trojan Horse to a photograph snapped in Vietnam, world history has been shaped as much by chance and error as by courage and heroism. Despite impossible odds, invincible armies fall in bitter defeat to weaker opponents. How and why does this happen? What decides the fate of battle? In this fascinating book, Erik Durschmied takes us through the major conflicts of historyfrom Agincourt to the Civil War, from Crimea to the Gulf Warand reveals how, in war, it is the improbable and the inconceivable that determine events.

    Writing with the style and flair that made him an award-winning war correspondent, Durschmied explores the fistful of nails that could have won Waterloo for Napoleon; the barrel of schnapps that proved disastrous for an Austrian emperor; and the three cigars that changes the course of Antietam; and many other instances when chance decided history’s path. Conflicts are decided by the caprice of weather, erroneous intelligence, unlikely heroism, strange coincidence, or individual incompetencein short, by the unpredictable hinge factor.”

    Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcade Publishing
    Release dateJul 19, 2016
    ISBN9781628726442
    Unavailable
    How Chance and Stupidity Have Changed History: The Hinge Factor
    Author

    Erik Durschmied

    Erik Durschmied was born in Vienna in 1930 and emigrated to Canada after World War II. A television war correspondent for the BBC and CBS, he has covered conflicts in Afghanistan, Belfast, Beirut, Chile, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, and Vietnam, and won numerous awards for his work. He lives in Paris and Provence with his family.

    Read more from Erik Durschmied

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