All republics that acquire supremacy over other nations, rule them selfishly and oppressively. There is no exception to this in either ancient or modern times. Carthage, Rome, Venice, Genoa, Florence, Pisa, Holland, and Republican France, all tyrannised over every province and subject state where they gained authority.
- Sir Edward Shepherd Creasy, The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World: from Marathon to Waterloo (1851)
Edward J. Creasy's 19th Century work of military history is considered one of the most famous works on military history in the 19th century at least. It caught the imagination of the British public and was something of a best seller. It came as it did between Clausewitzβs On War (1832) and Ardant Du Picqβs Battle Studies (1870). It is not only the authoritative account of each battle that makes Creasyβs work such a classicβit is his command of narrative, his interest in human struggle, his profound deductions as to effects of the battles, and his striving after truth. Furthermore, his selections seem as wise and well-considered today as when
It is not only the authoritative account of each battle that makes Creasyβs work such a classicβit is his command of narrative, his interest in human struggle, his profound deductions as to effects of the battles, and his striving after truth. Furthermore, his selections seem as wise and well-considered today as when Fifteen Decisive Battles first appeared in 1851: Nobody since has made better ones, nor given us better accounts.
Apart from the scholarship and literary skill of Creasyβs book, there is another reason it has endured: Creasy was essentially fair-minded. He had been a judge, and when he became Englandβs great military critic and historian, he maintained a thoroughly judicial attitude. He was not a British partisan, nor French, nor German - he was a cosmopolitan observer of great events.
Out of 2300 years, Creasy only found fifteen battles which he called decisive in the highest sense. He chose them not for the number of killed and wounded, nor for their status in myth and lore, but because they fundamentally changed the course of world history. In doing so, he made his book a miniature military history of the western world, a classic that will repay continued study for generations to come, as it has for past generations.
I have a copy of his book and, even though he is writing from the perspective of the Victorian era, his historical judgements are especially prescient and acute.
