In Strategy: A History, Sir Lawrence Freedman, one of the world's leading author
ities on war and international politics, captures the vast history of strategic
thinking, in a consistently engaging and insightful account of how strategy came
to pervade every aspect of our lives. The range of Freedman's narrative is extr
aordinary, moving from the surprisingly advanced strategy practiced in primate g
roups, to the opposing strategies of Achilles and Odysseus in The Iliad, the str
ategic advice of Sun Tzu and Machiavelli, the great military innovations of Baro
n Henri de Jomini and Carl von Clausewitz, the grounding of revolutionary strate
gy in class struggles by Marx, the insights into corporate strategy found in Pet
er Drucker and Alfred Sloan, and the contributions of the leading social scienti
sts working on strategy today. The core issue at the heart of strategy, the auth
or notes, is whether it is possible to manipulate and shape our environment rath
er than simply become the victim of forces beyond one's control.
Time and aga
in, Freedman demonstrates that the inherent unpredictability of this environment
-subject to chance events, the efforts of opponents, the missteps of friends-pro
vides strategy with its challenge and its drama. Armies or corporations or natio
ns rarely move from one predictable state of affairs to another, but instead fee
l their way through a series of states, each one not quite what was anticipated,
requiring a reappraisal of the original strategy, including its ultimate object
ive. Thus the picture of strategy that emerges in this book is one that is fluid
and flexible, governed by the starting point, not the end point.
A brilliant
overview of the most prominent strategic theories in history, from David's use
of deception against Goliath, to the modern use of game theory in economics, thi
s masterful volume sums up a lifetime of reflection on strategy.
