Dimensions
142 x 223 x 40mm
How Chance and Incompetence Have Changed the Face of History.
From the first death in a battle to the last victim of a recent conflict, violent confrontations by two enemy forces have resulted in the deaths of countless victims. There is no shortage of stories when it comes to battles. Some were decided by genius, but many more by a quirk of fate, when that thin balance which separates success from disaster lay in a minor decision or a trivial incident that tipped the scales.
Battles have shaped the course of history and decided the fate of mankind. From a brutal Attila the Hun who went down to defeat on the Catalaunian Fields, to an overbearing French artillery colonel at Dien Bien Phu; from the stout walls of Constantinople to a skimpy mealie-bag wall at Rorke's Drift; from the sun of Austerlitz to the snows of Stalingrad (where a spymaster's puzzled question was the key to the enigma), it was always an incident that decided the outcome of battle.
To history such a crucial moment is know as the hinge of a battle.
As in his recent bestsellers, 'The Hinge Factor' and 'The Weather Factor', Erik Durschmied evokes the curious circumstances under which history has been changed by a quirk of fate, once again bringing his subjects vividly to life.
