I really think this book, “History’s Great Military Blunders”, is one of the best among the “Great Courses” series, as good as “Modern Political Tradition”. This is an audible book at first and then it appears in Amazon video. When I scrolled down the list of the 24 episodes, I saw “Battle of Red Cliff”, which I know very well, having read “Romance of The Three Kingdoms” many times. My curiosity largely lies in the fact that I wonder if there’s any alternative view on this historical event, which has been romanticized too much in my opinion that many facts have been twisted. Unfortunately Professor Aldrete only touched the surface of the battle and the source of his information is mostly from legends and fictions. He has no other choice since he can only get information through these sources.
Other battles are more interesting. The first one, digging a tunnel and stuffing it with dynamite, in Petersburgs during the Civil War particularly fascinating, since there are digging, dynamite, crater involved. The battle between the Romans and the Parthians at Carrhae is well presented too, although I think the battle with Carthage who used elephants would probably be more to my liking.
I realized that I am not particularly interested in the battles, but rather I am more interested in people’s characters, background information, historical contexts, analysis of failures, details of weapons etc. The episode of “Knights versus Shopkeepers” is the best with all those supporting information being lively.
Haoyan Do 