1975
First Published
4.05
Average Rating
Ranging from Alexander the Great's battles with Asiatic Scythians, through the Russian Revolution, and on up to the turmoil in the Middle East and the battle in Northern Ireland, War in the Shadows is a book of monumental sweep and singular perspective. It also contains a comprehensive and hard-hitting strategic evaluation of the Vietnam War-one of the most significant analyses of "the war that won't go away." War in the Shadows tells the story of the countries currently torn by armed insurgencies and clarifies the causes of each conflict. It provides the broad viewpoint necessary for understanding them in the historical terms of guerilla warfare. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the end of the Cold War, and a highly unstable "new world order," this brand of rebellion has never been more powerful and potentially disruptive. As the author states in his Foreword, "For a number of reasons guerilla warfare has evolved into an ideal instrument for the realization of social-political-economic aspirations of underprivileged peoples. This is so patently true as to allow one to suggest that we may be witnessing a transition to a new era in warfare, an era as radically different as those of which followed the writings of Sun Tzu, Machiavelli, Clausewitz, and Mahan." War in the Shadows is crucial to understanding the complex challenges of our new and dangerous era.
Avg Rating
4.05
Number of Ratings
97
5 STARS
37%
4 STARS
38%
3 STARS
20%
2 STARS
3%
1 STARS
2%
goodreads
Author
Robert B. Asprey
Author · 9 books
Robert Brown Asprey was born in Sioux City, Iowa (1923 – January 26, 2009) and was an American military historian and author, noted for his books on military history published between 1959 and 2001. Asprey received a bachelor's degree from the University of Iowa in 1949, after serving in World War II. He also studied at New College, Oxford, at the University of Vienna, and at the University of Nice. In World War II, Asprey was a member of the secret Marine Beach Jumper Unit, then joined the 5th Marine Division. In the 1950s, he served in U.S. Army Intelligence in Austria before returning to the U.S. Marine Corps in the Korean War with the rank of captain. He received a Purple Heart and a Presidential Unit Citation for his service.
