Masters of Warfare

In Masters of Warfare, Eric G. L. Pinzelli presents a selection of fifty commanders whose military achievements, skill or historical impact he believes to be underrated by modern opinion. He specifically does not include the household names (the "Gods of War" as he calls them) such as Alexander, Julius Caesar, Wellington, Napoléon, Rommel or Patton that have been covered in countless biographies. Those chosen come from every period of recorded military history from the sixth century BC to the Vietnam War. The selection rectifies the European/US bias of many such surveys with Asian entries such as Bai Qi (Chinese), Attila (Hunnic), Subotai (Mongol), Ieyasu Tokugawa (Japanese) and Võ Nguyên Giáp (Vietnamese). Naval commanders are also represented by the likes of Khayr al-Din Barbarossa, Francis Drake and Michiel de Ruyter. These 50 "Masters of War" are presented in a chronological order easy to follow, with a concise overview of their life and career. Altogether they present a fascinating survey of the developments and continuities in the art of command, but most importantly their contribution to the evolution of weaponry, tactic and strategy through the ages.

Eric G L Pinzelli was raised in the wilds of Western Canada then attended the University of Provence. He is fluent in English, French, Portuguese and Italian and was trained in Intercomprehension by the now defunct Latin Union while working for the Alliance française in Brazilian Amazonia. He served in the French Marines in the early 1990s. Military history, geopolitics and archaeology are his main passions. In 1998 he was given the Military History Award as the best Military research work of the year in French Language and in 2003 he completed his PhD. Student of the late Daniel Panzac, he specialized in 17th - 18th centuries military history, in particular naval and siege warfare and the epic conflicts opposing the Ottoman Empire against Venice, Austria, the Papacy, Poland and Russia.