Strategy
A History
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Narrated by:
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Michael Butler Murray
About this listen
In Strategy: A History, Sir Lawrence Freedman, one of the world's leading authorities on war and international politics, captures the vast history of strategic thinking, in a consistently engaging and insightful account of how strategy came to pervade every aspect of our lives. The range of Freedman's narrative is extraordinary, moving from the surprisingly advanced strategy practiced in primate groups, to the opposing strategies of Achilles and Odysseus in The Iliad, the strategic advice of Sun Tzu and Machiavelli, the great military innovations of Baron Henri de Jomini and Carl von Clausewitz, the grounding of revolutionary strategy in class struggles by Marx, the insights into corporate strategy found in Peter Drucker and Alfred Sloan, and the contributions of the leading social scientists working on strategy today. The core issue at the heart of strategy, the author notes, is whether it is possible to manipulate and shape our environment rather than simply become the victim of forces beyond one's control. Time and again, Freedman demonstrates that the inherent unpredictability of this environment - subject to chance events, the efforts of opponents, the missteps of friends - provides strategy with its challenge and its drama. Armies or corporations or nations rarely move from one predictable state of affairs to another, but instead feel their way through a series of states, each one not quite what was anticipated, requiring a reappraisal of the original strategy, including its ultimate objective. Thus the picture of strategy that emerges in this book is one that is fluid and flexible, governed by the starting point, not the end point. A brilliant overview of the most prominent strategic theories in history, from David's use of deception against Goliath, to the modern use of game theory in economics, this masterful volume sums up a lifetime of reflection on strategy.
Download the accompanying reference guide.©2013 Lawrence Freedman (P)2014 Audible Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Overall
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Performance
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a must read for those who study warfare
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The Great Delusion
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- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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In this major statement, the renowned international-relations scholar John Mearsheimer argues that liberal hegemony, the foreign policy pursued by the United States since the Cold War ended, is doomed to fail. It makes far more sense, he maintains, for Washington to adopt a more restrained foreign policy based on a sound understanding of how nationalism and realism constrain great powers abroad.
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Dense, fact filled, sober analysis and prescription
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On China
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- Narrated by: Nicholas Hormann
- Length: 20 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In this sweeping and insightful history, Henry Kissinger turns for the first time at book length to a country he has known intimately for decades and whose modern relations with the West he helped shape. On China illuminates the inner workings of Chinese diplomacy during such pivotal events as the initial encounters between China and tight line modern European powers, the formation and breakdown of the Sino-Soviet alliance, the Korean War, and Richard Nixon’s historic trip to Beijing.
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Another History of China
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Of Paradise and Power
- America and Europe in the New World Order
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- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
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-
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Quick and pithy listen
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Washington Rules
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
For the last half century, as administrations have come and gone, the fundamental assumptions about America's military policy have remained unchanged: American security requires the United States (and us alone) to maintain a permanent armed presence around the globe, to prepare our forces for military operations in far-flung regions, and to be ready to intervene anywhere at any time. In the Obama era, just as in the Bush years, these beliefs remain unquestioned gospel.
-
-
Permanent war and insolvency...thanks Washington
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By: Andrew Bacevich
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- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 19 hrs and 45 mins
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In this classic work, Huntington challenges old assumptions and ideas on the role of the military in society. Stressing the value of the military outlook for American national policy, Huntington has performed the distinctive task of developing a general theory of civil-military relations and subjecting it to rigorous historical analysis.
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It’s complicated
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- The Myopia of American Strategic Planning
- By: Andrei Martyanov
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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This book explores the dramatic difference between the Russian and US approach to warfare, which manifests itself across the whole spectrum of activities from art and the economy to the respective national cultures; illustrates the fact that Russian economic, military, and cultural realities and power are no longer what American "elites" think they are by addressing Russia's new and elevated capacities in the areas of traditional warfare, as well as cyberwarfare and space; and studies several ways in-depth in which the US can simply stumble into conflict with Russia and what must be done to avoid it.
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Mixes Truth with Propoganda
- By Gavin on 02-08-21
By: Andrei Martyanov
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The Paranoid Style in American Politics
- By: Richard Hofstadter, Sean Wilentz - foreward
- Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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This timely reissue of Richard Hofstadter's classic work on the fringe groups that influence American electoral politics offers an invaluable perspective on contemporary domestic affairs. In The Paranoid Style in American Politics, acclaimed historian Richard Hofstadter examines the competing forces in American political discourse and how fringe groups can influence - and derail - the larger agendas of a political party.
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Written in the 50s and 60s...
- By Kindle Customer on 11-06-19
By: Richard Hofstadter, and others
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Breach of Trust
- How Americans Failed Their Soldiers and Their Country
- By: Andrew Bacevich
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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In Breach of Trust, Andrew Bacevich takes stock of the separation between Americans and their military, tracing its origins to the Vietnam era and exploring its pernicious implications: a nation with an abiding appetite for war waged at enormous expense by a standing army demonstrably unable to achieve victory. Among the collateral casualties are values once considered central to democratic practice, including the principle that responsibility for defending the country should rest with its citizens.
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Volunteer Mil+Disengaged Pop = Perpetual War Baby
- By Darwin8u on 10-23-13
By: Andrew Bacevich
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When the Facts Change
- Essays, 1995-2010
- By: Tony Judt
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 14 hrs
- Unabridged
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In When the Facts Change, Tony Judt's widow and fellow historian Jennifer Homans has assembled an essential collection of the most important and influential pieces written in the last 15 years of Judt's life, the years in which he found his voice in the public sphere. Included are seminal essays on the full range of Judt's concerns, including Europe as an idea and in reality, before 1989 and thereafter; Israel, the Holocaust and the Jews; American hyperpower and the world after 9/11.
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Essential
- By Herman Utik on 09-19-16
By: Tony Judt
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The Return of Marco Polo's World
- War, Strategy, and American Interests in the Twenty-First Century
- By: Robert D. Kaplan
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Drawing on decades of firsthand experience as a foreign correspondent and military embed for The Atlantic, as well as encounters with preeminent realist thinkers, Kaplan outlines the timeless principles that should shape America's role in a turbulent world: a respect for the limits of Western-style democracy; a delineation between American interests and American values; an awareness of the psychological toll of warfare; a projection of power via a strong navy; and more.
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Essays on the Region of the Silk Road
- By Jeff Beardsley on 05-19-18
By: Robert D. Kaplan
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The Anatomy of Fascism
- By: Robert O. Paxton
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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What is fascism? By focusing on the concrete, what the fascists did rather than what they said, the esteemed historian Robert O. Paxton answers this question for the first time. From the first violent uniformed bands beating up "enemies of the state", through Mussolini's rise to power, to Germany's fascist radicalization in World War II, Paxton shows clearly why fascists came to power in some countries and not others.
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Great book for getting a clearer idea of fascism
- By Amazon Customer on 11-02-17
By: Robert O. Paxton
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Temptations of Power
- Islamists & Illiberal Democracy in a New Middle East
- By: Shadi Hamid
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1989, Francis Fukuyama famously announced the "end of history." The Berlin Wall had fallen; liberal democracy had won out. But what of illiberal democracy - the idea that popular majorities, working through the democratic process, might reject gender equality, religious freedoms, and other norms that Western democracies take for granted? Nowhere have such considerations become more relevant than in the Middle East, where the uprisings of 2011 swept the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups to power.
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A new perspective
- By Dave114 on 08-06-18
By: Shadi Hamid
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On Anarchism
- By: Noam Chomsky, Nathan Schneider - introduction
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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On Anarchism provides the reasoning behind Noam Chomsky's fearless lifelong questioning of the legitimacy of entrenched power. In these essays, Chomsky redeems one of the most maligned ideologies, anarchism, and places it at the foundation of his political thinking. Chomsky's anarchism is distinctly optimistic and egalitarian. Moreover, it is a living, evolving tradition that is situated in a historical lineage; Chomsky's anarchism emphasizes the power of collective, rather than individualist, action.
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Hit and Miss
- By Jacob King on 06-18-14
By: Noam Chomsky, and others
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Democracy Incorporated
- Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism
- By: Sheldon S. Wolin
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Sheldon Wolin considers the unthinkable: has America unwittingly morphed into a new and strange kind of political hybrid, one where economic and state powers are conjoined and virtually unbridled? Can the nation check its descent into what the author terms "inverted totalitarianism"? Wolin portrays a country where citizens are politically uninterested and submissive - and where elites are eager to keep them that way.
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Essential listening....
- By M. Levine on 02-25-11
By: Sheldon S. Wolin
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You better know the events before listening
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Interesting, but fails to offer real lessons.
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A good historical review of the progression of war
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You better know the events before listening
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A good historical review of the progression of war
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The Evolution of Nuclear Strategy
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great reading, great material
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One of the greatest stories ever told.
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On War
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A classic work of military strategy, On War sets forth the theories and tactics of Carl von Clausewitz, a distinguished Prussian general who was notable for his roles in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. The book covers a broad range of topics, including weapons, terrain, troops, and leadership, as well as the importance of defense over offence, the balance of power, and the subordination of war to politics. Praised for its timeless insights, Clausewitz’s treatise is often compared to the work of Machiavelli and Sun Tzu, and remains relevant to military leaders.
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This is not the Howard/Paret edition.
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Joel Trachtman's audiobook presents in plain and lucid terms the powerful tools of argument that have been honed through the ages in the discipline of law. If you are a law student or new lawyer, a business professional or a government official, this book will boost your analytical thinking, your foundational legal knowledge, and your confidence as you win arguments for your clients, your organizations, or yourself.
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Not bad
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The Better Angels of Our Nature
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Faced with the ceaseless stream of news about war, crime, and terrorism, one could easily think we live in the most violent age ever seen. Yet as New York Times bestselling author Steven Pinker shows in this startling and engaging new work, just the opposite is true: violence has been diminishing for millennia and we may be living in the most peaceful time in our species's existence.
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I'd kill for another book this good
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The Complete Strategy Collection
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- By: Sun Tzu, Niccolo Machiavelli, Miyamoto Musashi, and others
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The Complete Strategy Collection, a compilation of ancient and historical philosophies, will increase your knowledge of strategy, conflict, and adversity throughout the ages, giving you valuable insight into the past while opening a window to the future. Although each of the works can be considered a manual or diagram for war or engaging in physical combat, the life skills embodied in each can be adapted to everyday life in modern society. Listen and learn how you, too, can take advantage of the strategies of war.
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An excellent compilation
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By: Sun Tzu, and others
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Light in the Darkness
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On April 10, 2019, award-winning astrophysicist Heino Falcke presented the first image ever captured of a black hole at an international press conference - a turning point in astronomy that Science magazine called the scientific breakthrough of the year. That photo was captured with the unthinkable commitment of an intercontinental team of astronomers who transformed the world into a global telescope. While this image achieved Falcke’s goal in making a black hole “visible” for the first time, he recognizes that the photo itself asks more questions for humanity than it answers.
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One of the best astronomy book with latest details
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By: Heino Falcke
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The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass
- Written by Himself
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The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass was Douglass' third autobiography. In it he was able to go into greater detail about his life as a slave and his escape from slavery, as he and his family were no longer in any danger from the reception of his work. In this engrossing narrative he recounts early years of abuse; his dramatic escape to the North and eventual freedom, abolitionist campaigns, and his crusade for full civil rights for former slaves.
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Excellent in so many ways...
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When Money Dies
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- By: Adam Fergusson
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Overall
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Performance
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When Money Dies is the classic history of what happens when a nations currency depreciates beyond recovery. In 1923, with its currency effectively worthless (the exchange rate in December of that year was one dollar to 4,200,000,000,000 marks), the German republic was all but reduced to a barter economy. Expensive cigars, artworks, and jewels were routinely exchanged for staples such as bread; a cinema ticket could be bought for a lump of coal; and a bottle of paraffin for a silk shirt....
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Useless details, missing the big points
- By Jean Le Lupi on 07-04-12
By: Adam Fergusson
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On War
- By: Carl Von Clausewitz
- Narrated by: Fardeen MacKenzie
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Carl von Clausewitz was a Prussian general and military theorist. On War (also widely known by its German name Vom Kriege) is considered to be Clausewitz’s magnum opus, despite the fact it remained unfinished at the time of his death. Published posthumously between 1832 and 1835 by Clausewitz’s wife, On War delivers a deep insight into various concepts and schools of thought connected to war. Using a vast amount of historical examples, Clausewitz explores the political, philosophical, and ethical implications of war.
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Incomplete...only contains Books I-IV (1-4).
- By Anthony on 06-14-20
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The American Civil War
- By: Gary W. Gallagher, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Gary W. Gallagher
- Length: 24 hrs and 37 mins
- Original Recording
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Between 1861 and 1865, the clash of the greatest armies the Western hemisphere had ever seen turned small towns, little-known streams, and obscure meadows in the American countryside into names we will always remember. In those great battles, those streams ran red with blood-and the United States was truly born.
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Excellent Series
- By Rodney on 07-09-13
By: Gary W. Gallagher, and others
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Food: A Cultural Culinary History
- By: Ken Albala, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Ken Albala
- Length: 18 hrs and 22 mins
- Original Recording
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Eating is an indispensable human activity. As a result, whether we realize it or not, the drive to obtain food has been a major catalyst across all of history, from prehistoric times to the present. Epicure Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin said it best: "Gastronomy governs the whole life of man."
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One of my top 3 favorite courses!
- By Jessica on 12-28-13
By: Ken Albala, and others
What listeners say about Strategy
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Henry Carr
- 05-03-16
Succinct millennia of evolution in strategy
This is a very articulate book summarize the growth of strategy over the course of a full millennia, from biblical times all the way to psychology and neuroscience today. It is a fantastic work in its comprehensiveness. One of the natural difficulties of a book like this is delving into the content deeply enough to really grasp the nuance of each character. Freedman was skilled at this. One fault is that the exploration of tangential topics requires of you an effort to maintain the connection back to strategy in your head, especially on audio.
Murray is a good reader with a natural credibility to his voice. I listen at 1.5x to listen at normal talking speed and at that page he sounds like a knowledgeable, likable friend.
I recommend this book. It is listenable and will expose you to the big players and their fundamental positions.
A couple of quick comments:
1. With a book this long, I recommend mapping out the primary characters and their positions afterwards to get a good grasp of the development and interplay and to help make sense of the vast amount of information.
2. The language is dense; for an audiobook this makes it tough to listen fluidly without rewinding on many occasions. I didn't find this to be too problematic however. I would keep in mind though that it might contribute to a listen 10% longer than the actual length of the audiobook.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Loren Groves
- 06-20-15
Wonderful introduction to a slice of thinking
Wonderful! A nice Walkthrough riddled with beautiful anecdotes of famous thinkers. Love this and would recommend
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1 person found this helpful
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- Chris Richardson
- 11-25-15
history, detail, and recognition of reality
Any additional comments?
Narratively compelling, detail rich. Many books are either history or current affairs. It is a rare title that manages to tell real history and sucessfully transfer into relavant topics.
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1 person found this helpful
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- James buchanan
- 06-21-18
great read
long winded and sometimes mundane and dry. lots of information and great take on historical situations.
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- Matthew
- 11-21-18
Drags Sometimes but Worth it
It's a book on strategy as well as its fallacies. A good read for potential mangers and business owners as it will teach you how strategy plays a role and how the word is inaccurately applied.
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- steve
- 06-17-21
Excellent book
Don’t be discouraged by the length. Even though in the middle of it, you will say to yourself “Self, this book will never end”, you will be thankful when you reach the conclusion.
Invest the time, it’s worth it
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- Marcelo Lascano
- 08-30-22
A bit long but covers everything about strategy
From wars, to business and politics, covers all scenarios of strategy from ancient times to modern situations
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- Gary
- 04-16-15
Life is not chess, there are no correct moves
The author quotes John von Neumann (a developer of game theory among many other things) in the beginning of the book to the effect that the Game of Chess doesn't require a strategy because there is an exact mathematically correct move for every situation but for most other areas a correct strategy is not determinable. This book covers all those different areas in an encyclopedic fashion.
The book is a long read, but who among us can't devote thirty hours or more to such an interesting topic. The book is thematically arranged by area (war, politics, social sciences, business, and so on). He'll talk about the different strategies and almost always shows that they work until they don't.
The book illustrates how dangerous it is to just have intuition with a good narrative when developing a strategy while ignoring the empirical and reality. Reality is complex. Most of the time narratives will only get you so far.
Overall a long read, but worth it. There is a central narrative in the book, but sometimes the author didn't understand how to tie his stories together coherently.
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32 people found this helpful
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- Dianne
- 08-12-15
How strategy evolved through historic failures.
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Definitely I would, the book doesn't just explore successful strategies, but concentrates on the failures, how they failed, and how they evolved. Freedman successfully sidesteps the "survivorship bias" by making how strategies fail a prominent feature of the book. Anyone who employs strategic thinking in their lives, work or otherwise, would benefit immensely from learning the history of what has already been tried, for better or worse, throughout recorded history.
What was one of the most memorable moments of Strategy?
The detailed account of the "wedge" strategy employed by proponents of the "Intelligent Design" movement to systematically undermine what they called "materialistic science", in order to remake science in an image consonant with their religious beliefs. I've read about intelligent design before, and I'm familiar with them, but gained a new perspective through the lens of political strategy, instead of debates & the debunking of pseudoscience.
What about Michael Butler Murray’s performance did you like?
His tone and range of inflection was good, keeping the long listen from turning into a sedative. I did notice him mispronouncing a number of the longer, more jargon type words, so don't always trust his pronunciation.
What’s the most interesting tidbit you’ve picked up from this book?
My favorite, perhaps most valued insight from this book (among many), was insight into how so many strategies have failed, following a common pattern of rigidity, bullheaded blindness to changes in the environment or refusing to revise a core principle, position or philosophy. From marxism to failed political campaigns and business strategies, this failure is so obvious once illuminated, yet remains common even today.
Any additional comments?
The use of recent advancements in cognitive neuroscience and psychology being applied to all fields of strategy, along with the values of the scientific method, was insightful, and very exciting.
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- Steven
- 02-06-20
A Mixed Bag
I found this book alternately enlightening and infuriating as it became an endurance contest to finish. I probably know about half of the topics that Freedman covers rather well. And where that was the case, I was dismayed by how light the treatment of the person/event/theory/etc. was. When he was in a period or aspect (business strategy, nuclear theory...) that I knew far less well, then it was great to soak in a lot of new ideas (maybe not so much for the business stretch, but I freely admit to personal bias there). Still, it was fascinating to see Thucydides, the suffragette movement, and the Rand Corp all on a continuum.
That said, the narrator drove me crazy. Words were butchered on far too regular a basis (and this was not a case of British vs US English). Who pronounces "anomalous" as though it rhymes with enamel-us?? Several times, I had to pause the book and review the words in my head as if on a page to detect the mistake. And when the great sociologist Max Weber dominates nearly 1/3 of a text, it behooves the narrator to say his name right. Ugh.
This was the closest I've ever come to returning a book to Audible. I didn't, though, and in the end, it gave me good food for thought. But I'm stubborn that way.
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