Summary of John Lewis Gaddis's On Grand Strategy

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 The Persian king Xerxes had a dream that his armies would be defeated by the Greeks. His adviser and uncle Artabanus told him not to worry, because if he did not attack Greece, he would be punished by being humiliated again.
#2 Xerxes was the king of Persia, and he wanted to conquer Greece. He prayed to the sun for the strength to conquer not just Greece, but all of Europe. He ordered his priests to burn incense.
#3 The distinction between hedgehogs and foxes is simple but not frivolous: it offers a point of view from which to look and compare, a starting point for genuine investigation. It reflects one of the deepest differences between writers and thinkers, and perhaps human beings in general.
#4 Tolstoy’s essay was a response to Berlin’s theory of foxes and hedgehogs, which he had applied to the Russian Revolution. Berlin had stumbled upon two of the best ways to become intellectually indelible: be Delphic, and turn your ideas into animals.

Sujets

• Civilization

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 06 avril 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669380696
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on John Lewis Gaddis's On Grand Strategy
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5 Insights from Chapter 6 Insights from Chapter 7 Insights from Chapter 8 Insights from Chapter 9 Insights from Chapter 10
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The Persian king Xerxes had a dream that his armies would be defeated by the Greeks. His adviser and uncle Artabanus told him not to worry, because if he did not attack Greece, he would be punished by being humiliated again.

#2

Xerxes was the king of Persia, and he wanted to conquer Greece. He prayed to the sun for the strength to conquer not just Greece, but all of Europe. He ordered his priests to burn incense.

#3

The distinction between hedgehogs and foxes is simple but not frivolous: it offers a point of view from which to look and compare, a starting point for genuine investigation. It reflects one of the deepest differences between writers and thinkers, and perhaps human beings in general.

#4

Tolstoy’s essay was a response to Berlin’s theory of foxes and hedgehogs, which he had applied to the Russian Revolution. Berlin had stumbled upon two of the best ways to become intellectually indelible: be Delphic, and turn your ideas into animals.

#5

Herodotus, the Greek historian, wrote about Artabanus and Xerxes in the 480s to the 420s B. C. E. He stated that Artabanus wanted to dismantle the bridges and send everyone back home, but Xerxes wanted to keep going and conquer everything.

#6

The most rigorous study ever done on why some people get the future right and others don’t found that self-identification as foxes or hedgehogs when shown Berlin’s definitions of those terms made all the difference in predicting the future.

#7

The test of a good theory is its ability to explain the past, as only if it does can we trust what it may tell us about the future. Herodotus’s account of the Persian invasion of Greece demonstrates that Tetlock’s findings hold up across time.

#8

The Battle of Plataea was the final defeat of the Persian army, and it was left to a playwright to warn Xerxes about the futility of trying to conquer the Greeks.

#9

Xerxes’ invasion of Greece was an early example of hedgehog-like behavior. Being King of Kings was a very big thing, and Xerxes thought he could conquer Europe if he could just gather the greatest military force ever. But he failed to establish a proper relationship between his ends and his means.

#10

We often make choices that involve sacrificing one thing for another. We stretch these decisions out over time, and consider what we want now, what we want later, and what we can’t have at all.

#11

Only narratives can show dilemmas across time. They are, in short, dramatizations. And a fundamental requirement of these is never to bore. Lincoln is a good example of this. It shows the president trying to make good on the Declaration of Independence’s claim that all men are created equal, but he must use malodorous methods to abolish slavery.

#12

The author places us within the mind of Natasha at her first grand ball, within that of Pierre as he gets himself into and survives a duel, and within those of Prince Bolkonsky and Count Rostov, the most difficult and indulgent fathers in modern literature.

#13

Common sense is the ease with which we manage our lives most of the time. We generally know where we’re going, but we’re constantly adjusting our route to avoid the unexpected, including obstructions others place in our path.

#14

Grand strategies are meant to prevent the alignment of unlimited aspirations with limited capabilities. They have traditionally been associated with the planning and fighting of wars, but the necessity for such alignment goes back much further than that.

#15

The academic mind is divided between the study of history and the construction of theory, which is needed if ends are to be aligned with means. Historians, knowing that their field rewards specialized research, avoid the generalizations upon which theories depend.

#16

The plan may not follow the exact route, and it may be changed along the way. But it will still reflect your intentions, and you’ll know your destination. The only way to overcome the unknown is to improvise, but this is not just making it up as you go along.

#17

The best way to train for battle is through athletics. While playing the game, you’ll be a hedgehog in how you function. Looking back, you’ll be able to say when you were which.

#18

The Hellespont is the bridge between common sense and leadership. It’s where leaders become prisoners of their own preeminence, and where common sense becomes lost.
Insights from Chapter 2

#1

The Greeks, who were known for their rivalries, used those rivalries to their advantage after the Battle of Salamis. They built the longest walls ever surrounding two cities, Athens and Piraeus.

#2

The Greeks had already been a maritime people who had trading networks that stretched from the Atlantic to the Black Sea. They had also grown wealthy, extracting profits and protection payments from their dependencies.

#3

The historian Thucydides, who wrote about the Peloponnesian War between Athens, Sparta, and their respective allies in the fourth century BC, warned his readers that his history would not be Herodotus’s. His absence of romance would detract from its interest, but he hoped that it would be useful for those seeking knowledge of the past as an aid to the understanding of the future.

#4

The Spartans had tried to convince the Athenians that they should not build a wall, because it would make the Greeks more unified while denying the Persians any fortifications in the future.