Hubert P. Van Tuyll

Like other reviewers who were disappointed in this book, I expected much more than I got -- and have gotten so little that I do not expect to finish the book. In the first place, Mr. Brauer's examination of certain key situations or events in military history was not, for me at least, nearly as interesting as it should have been. I am an economist by training, but have read a fair amount of military history, and found some of it enthralling. This is not. Second, it seems to me that Mr. Brauer attempts to force history into something that matches his theories. He focusses on instances that prove his points, and ignores those that do not. Indeed, one of his aims is to infuse non-theoretical bias of current historical studies with a good dose of theory -- economic theory. As someone who feels that much of the theoretical work in economics over the last thirty years has moved us away from the real world of political economy into a self regarding sphere of mathematical pseudo-science, I cannot believe that applying the same approach to history will be highly productive.… (meer)