Includes index

Introduction: The Battle of San Juan Hill (1898) -- Unfit to lead: The aged -- The ill and incapacitated -- The insane and the irrational -- The stupid -- The Battle of Karansebes (1788) -- Retreat from Kabul (1842) -- The killing fields of Paraguay -- The Battle of Kasserine Pass (1943) -- First, command yourself: The cowardly -- The rash -- The quarrelsome -- The ambitious -- The Athenian Expedition to Syracuse (415-413 BC) -- The Battle of the Crater (1864) -- The Battle of Custozza (1866) -- Painting the wrong picture: The impetuous -- The timid -- The bigoted -- The unsure -- The Battle of Pliska (811) -- The Battle of Trenton (1776) -- The Battle of Majuba Hill (1881) -- The Amritsar Massacre (1919) -- The Battle of Dien Bien Phu (1954) -- The tactics of defeat: The conservative -- Roughing it -- A poor lookout ... -- Crossed lines ... -- The Battle of Beneventum (275 BC) -- The Battle of Teutoburger Wald (AD 9) -- The Battle of Bannockburn (1314) -- The butchers: Lapses of the great -- Bloody incompetents -- The Battle of Fredericksburg (1862) -- The Battle of Gravelotte-St. Privat (1870) -- Naked into battle: Dressed to kill -- Empty stomachs -- Blame your tools -- Sick parade -- Be prepared ... -- The expedition to Cadiz (1625) -- The My Lai Massacre (1968) -- Planning for disaster: The Luddite tendency -- Adapt or die -- Austrian mobilization in 1914 -- The Suvla Bay landings (1915) -- The Battle of Guadalajara (1937) -- Ministerial irresponsibility: Meddling ministers -- Media muddles -- The Battle of Adowa (1896) -- Operation Barbarossa (1941) -- The Bay of Pigs (1961) -- The Battle of Namka Chu (1962) -- Operation Eagle Claw (1980)

"From ancient times to the present, military history has been marked as much by misjudgments and incompetence as by gallantry and glory. No nation seems exempt from its fair share of military blunders ... In this ... collection, [the author] examines the kinds of problems that can lead to disaster. These range from insanity ... to calamitous misjudgments of the enemy"--Page 4 of cover

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