Military Review English Edition May-June 2014 | Page 94

BOOK REVIEWS

whom may be inclined one day to use nuclear weapons deliberately. The fact that many have sought
more “usable” weapons through advanced designs
would strengthen the author’s case in this respect.
However, Bracken eschews technical explanations,
preferring to dwell on the complex dynamics of
politics and strategy. He details the challenges of
the second nuclear age in the Middle East, South
Asia, and East Asia.
In pressing for “thinking about the unthinkable,”
Bracken seems aware of his delicate position. Warren
Kozak writes in LeMay: The Life and Wars of General Curtis LeMay that when Gen. Curtis LeMay
joined the ticket as the vice presidential candidate in
1968, he embarrassed the Wallace campaign when he
remarked on the American people’s “phobia” about
the use of nuclear weapons. Even if Bracken found
this phobia as unfortunate as LeMay did, he knew
better than to take this tone. While no Dr. Strangelove,
the author is indeed a voice crying in the wilderness.
The possibility of mutual assured destruction may be
remote, but the chances of regional war have grown
uncomfortably higher. Possessing fewer escalation
options than potential adversaries such as Russia
or China, the United States stands to find itself at a
disadvantage in future crises.
The country’s nuclear forces and institutions have
atrophied alongside its critical thinking about nuclearrelated matters. What the United States needs, asserts
Bracken, is a “Nuclear Strategy 101” course to rouse
the security community out of its dangerous slumber and acquaint it with managing the complexity
and increased risk of a new era. As a primer to spur
this reawakening, The Second Nuclear Age serves
remarkably well.
Lt. Col. James S. Powell, Ph.D., U.S. Army,
Washington, D.C.

MOMENT OF BATTLE:

The Twenty Clashes That Changed the World
James Lacey and Williamson Murray,
Bantam Books, New York,
2013, 479 pages, $30.00

I
92

N MOMENT OF Battle, authors James Lacey
and Williamson Murray tackle an interesting

endeavor—to pick the 20 battles that most affected
the world. The authors undertake this task to address
their concern about a trend among some U.S. academic circles—namely, the belief that “wars and
military and strategic history are irrelevant to the
study of the past” and that great figures of history
have actually played minor roles.
The authors contend “that wars and battles have
had a direct and massive impact on the course of
history, one that is essential to understanding the
world in which we live.” However, they agree that
studying battles in isolation can be misleading.
Readers must understand the cultural context in
which a battle occurred.
In deciding which battles to include in the book,
the authors have followed Edward Creasy’s direction in Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World. Lacey
and Murray selected battles for their “long-term
impact on the course of history,” and not for their
importance to military art. Still, Lacey and Murray
concede that using their criteria forced them into the
“precarious game of counterfactual history,” where
they had to imagine how a different outcome of a
battle might have fundamentally changed the course
of history. Given the number of battles throughout
history, even with these criteria there is bound to
be controversy in the authors’ choices. However,
readers will be impressed by the authors’ logic and
rationale.
For each of the 20 battles, the authors explain
the cultural context at the time of the battle and
the events leading up to it. They describe what was
transpiring on the ground and what was going on
at the critical moment in each battle. Yet, within
their descriptions, the authors never lose sight of
the fact that death, destruction, and sacrifice were
occurring. When describing the decisive moment
at the Battle of Gaugamela, the authors write that
what the Persians “needed to do was find some way
to maneuver. What they did do however was stand
toe-to-toe against an invincible juggernaut. Darius
stood in mute horrified witness as the best of Persia’s’ infantry was pulverized.”
An interesting aspect of the book is the authors’
ideas on what would have happened had the battle
turned out differently. Here, the authors show true
skill in leading the reader through the possible outcomes. The authors are not afraid to challenge other
theories with their conclusions. For example, while
May-June 2014

MILITARY REVIEW