Strategy: A History

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.