Richard Overy has previously put out some decent monographs, so I'm not sure why he decided on this project. To be perfectly honest, if you're new to history in general, or military history more specifically, you will find a lot of interesting events, personalities, and battles discussed from the past 2000+ years. The problem, as with all such attempts, is that there is no justice done to any of these battles, personalities, or events in the few pages devoted to each of the battles discussed. Serious historians, academics, students of history, and those familiar with military history specifically can readily skip this brief romp through 100 battles. There is nothing new, original, or worthwhile to find amidst these pages. Each 'chapter' reads like a high school essay with in-depth context and analysis replaced by the equivalent of modern news channel sound bites.
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