潜水日久，从诸位网上获益良多，故也分享一些个人收藏。
由于犬子甚爱军事、自然科学、车船飞机等男孩类读物，而这些国际知名出版社DK是最专业的，所以我从国际网站上找了一下书籍，都是高品质的pdf。
今天回馈新老朋友第一本：
Commanders - History's Greatest Military Leaders (DKPublishing) (2011)：
Military commanders have been a diverse collection ofindividuals and their job has altered radically overtime through the impact oftechnological innovation and social and political changes. The men profiled inthis book range from all-conquering warriors to cautious dedicated careersoldiers, from the rulers of kingdoms and empires to ordinary citizens thrustby circumstance into the forefront of war. Some were men who delighted incombat and slaughter, while others were often sickened by their own trade andwould agree with the Duke of Wellington that “next to a battle lost, thegreatest misery is a battle gained”.
Military command has always been, in all historicalsituations, a complex task. It is true that, during the American Civil War,President Lincoln described General Grant as indispensable simply because “hefights”. But this does not mean the conduct of battles is the sole essence ofgeneral ship. The military commander has to look to the morale and training ofhis soldiers, and see that supplies are provided for the men, their animals,and their machines. He must gather and sift intelligence before preparingcoherent plans and clearly communicating them to his subordinates. If he iscunning, he will ensure that battle is only joined when his army has theadvantage – a general who repeatedly wins close-run victories against the oddsis not doing his job properly. Bold risk-taking fighters, from Alexander theGreat through Richard the Lionheart to George Patton, have always caught theeye, but some of the most successful commanders have been of an altogether differenttemperament – the intellectual and cultivated Moltke the Elder, for example, orthe cool and diplomatic Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Writing in the 1960s, Israeli general Moshe Dayan expressednostalgia for “the good old days” when, at the approach of battle, “thecommander got on his white horse, someone blew the trumpet, and off he chargedtowards the enemy.” Certainly it was possible for Alexander the Great to leadfrom the front, charging the enemy at the head of his Companion cavalry. Even amore level-headed commander of the ancient world, such as Julius Caesar, wouldhave been close enough to the action to shout encouragement to his fightingmen. A location just behind the fighting zone remained the normal battleposition for a commander into the 19th century, when it was still just possibleto survey a whole field with the aid of a telescope. But the increasing size ofarmies, the growing power and range of weapons, and new means of communication,such as telephone and radio, imposed remoteness on the batter field commander.By the early 20th century the German general, Alfred von Schlieffen, couldforesee a future in which “the warlord will be located... in the rear, in ahouse with spacious offices... seated in a comfortable chair, in front of alarge desk.” He could not have predicted that by 2001 it would be possible foran American general to command operations in Afghanistan from a headquarters inFlorida.
The managerial complexity of modern military command,regretted by General Dayan, has often made it difficult to identify theindividual to be credited as the commander of a particular operation. There wasno doubt whatsoever that Hannibal led the Punic army campaigning in Italy inthe third century BCE, or Nelson the British fleet at Trafalgar in 1805. But atPasschendaele in World War I, Canadian General Arthur Currie held command underBritish General Herbert Plumer, who himself was under Field Marshal DouglasHaig. In selecting entries for this book, an attempt has been made to identifyhands-on commanders of armies and fleets, excluding both those toobureaucratically high-placed for field command and those too lowly to qualify.Military commanders who were also political leaders – the majority, in fact, upto the 18th century – are included, but political leaders who interfered inmilitary operations, without being military commanders in their own right, arenot
Respect for military commanders as role models has declinedin recent times. Heroes such as Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, once universallyadmired, have been the subject of revisionist biographies focusing on theirmassacres and lust for power. Yet the men surveyed in this book showed many andvaried human qualities, including moral fortitude, decisiveness, resilienceunder pressure, physical courage, humane concern for the welfare of theirsoldiers, and the ability to shoulder a great burden of responsibility. Oursocieties may yet find that, in the future, they need the martial virtues morethan they expect.
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