โThe worldโs most fascinating battles and how they were won or lost, according to the Chinese sage.โโKirkus Reviews Imagine if Robert E. Lee had withdrawn to higher ground at Gettysburg instead of sending Pickett uphill against the entrenched Union line. Or if Napolรฉon, at Waterloo, had avoided mistakes heโd never made before. The advice that would have changed these crucial battles was written down centuries before Christ was bornโbut unfortunately for Lee, Napolรฉon, and Hitler, Sun Tzuโs The Art of War only became widely available in the West in the mid-twentieth century. As Bevin Alexander shows, Sun Tzuโs maxims often boil down to common sense, in a particularly pure and clear form. When Alexander frames these modern battles against 2,400-year-old precepts, the degree of overlap is stunning.