Strategy

A History

By: Lawrence Freedman

Narrated by: Michael Butler Murray

Length: 32 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

In Strategy: A History, Sir Lawrence Freedman, one of the world's leading authorities 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 extraordinary, moving from the surprisingly advanced strategy practiced in primate groups, to the opposing strategies of Achilles and Odysseus in The Iliad, the strategic advice of Sun Tzu and Machiavelli, the great military innovations of Baron Henri de Jomini and Carl von Clausewitz, the grounding of revolutionary strategy in class struggles by Marx, the insights into corporate strategy found in Peter Drucker and Alfred Sloan, and the contributions of the leading social scientists working on strategy today. The core issue at the heart of strategy, the author notes, is whether it is possible to manipulate and shape our environment rather than simply become the victim of forces beyond one's control. Time and again, Freedman demonstrates that the inherent unpredictability of this environment - subject to chance events, the efforts of opponents, the missteps of friends - provides strategy with its challenge and its drama. Armies or corporations or nations rarely move from one predictable state of affairs to another, but instead feel their way through a series of states, each one not quite what was anticipated, requiring a reappraisal of the original strategy, including its ultimate objective. 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, this masterful volume sums up a lifetime of reflection on strategy.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2013 Lawrence Freedman (P)2014 Audible Inc.

a v e r y l o n g a n t h o l o g y

very thorough.. but even narrator lost track rambling from military to political to business to...

What is Strategy?

Here in this book, you learn how strategy is used by historical figures.
How is it that these individuals have been able to conquer their opponents with less than ideal situations? Not enough troops, not enough manpower , not enough what? Could you tell that conquerors of all ages have done one thing in mind, and that is to strategize. What does your opponent plan on doing, what do they think *YOU* are going to do, what will you feign to have the upper hand with a miscalculation?
Listen to this book, and you'll get a broad understanding of how people use this to their advantage. Whether you are just curious to know more, or are wanting to do better in life situations ( whether it be business, or moments of ambiguity )
Don't just play chess, conquer your enemies with strategy.

Do you know everything Jeeves?

"I really couldn't say sir."

erudite, fascinating, loved it
A real workout for my aging brain.

Good book but poor reader

As a professor of business strategy and an enthusiast of military strategy I am impressed by the scope for this book. It would be improved by better linkages between the sections rather than just jumping from military to political strategy, for example. The reader is pretty poor as he mispronunces some standard English words such as “posthumous” and completely mispronounces most foreign words, especially those in French. For example, he pronounced repertoires as repertories. Perhaps the worst was his pronunciation of the most famous ever sociologist, the German Max Weber, as “Webber” rather than “Veber”. He should have been given a guide.

I tired to give it four stars for overall and story but the system keeps changing the stars.

Great info to strategy and power

Provided a great intro or overview to how society (USA) is ran, power and strategy

Good Summary Book

at the beginning I had a hard time continuing. but after some of the biblical story,.the listen were great. for me the business part was great. I'm product of those fads :). enlightening

Good overall review of everything.

Strategy is a very general and multifaceted topic ranging from military to personal relations and politics.
This book attempts to do almost impossible - to cover all aspects of Strategy and how it evolved throughout human history.
I would think this book is successful in doing so but as a side effect this book is long covering a range of subjects.
Readers with different backgrounds might like some subjects better then others.
I think I came out with better understanding of how complex and multifaceted topic of Strategy is after going through this audiobook.

A bit long, but thorough

This tome encompasses ideas of strategy from religious thought and philosophy to ancient civilizations all the way to the modern corporation and management theory. Highly recommended, if you have the patience to listen to the whole thing.

Mainly a history of strategy

It’s mainly a history of strategy with brief application. To save your time the synopsis of the book of strategy is to simply use what resources you have at any given time and be willing to change on the fly, if necessary, and do that for the rest of your career.

Succinct millennia of evolution in strategy

This is a very articulate book summarize the growth of strategy over the course of a full millennia, from biblical times all the way to psychology and neuroscience today. It is a fantastic work in its comprehensiveness. One of the natural difficulties of a book like this is delving into the content deeply enough to really grasp the nuance of each character. Freedman was skilled at this. One fault is that the exploration of tangential topics requires of you an effort to maintain the connection back to strategy in your head, especially on audio.

Murray is a good reader with a natural credibility to his voice. I listen at 1.5x to listen at normal talking speed and at that page he sounds like a knowledgeable, likable friend.

I recommend this book. It is listenable and will expose you to the big players and their fundamental positions.

A couple of quick comments:

1. With a book this long, I recommend mapping out the primary characters and their positions afterwards to get a good grasp of the development and interplay and to help make sense of the vast amount of information.

2. The language is dense; for an audiobook this makes it tough to listen fluidly without rewinding on many occasions. I didn't find this to be too problematic however. I would keep in mind though that it might contribute to a listen 10% longer than the actual length of the audiobook.