I do not begrudge Michael Walsh his political views, or his bombast. But, properly understood, they are seasoning, not the main course.
There are books you pick up again and again. There are books that you pick up and put down. And then there are books that you pick up, and put down very slowly, and inch away from, because they might snap at you. This is one of those, and I am more than a little disappointed.

This book focuses on the twelve battles that changed western history and how war is such an intrinsic part of human culture. This book gave me a lot to think about. Some of the battles chosen surprised me or I didn't know anything about them going in. That made it interesting to read just how important battles I didn't know were to history. My favorite analysis was Achilles at Troy because I love Greek mythology and how it is still such a part of our culture all these years later. Each chapter covers a battle, making for long chapters. I found the book dense at times and had to read it one chapter a sitting. The author's opinions also seep into the text at times. This is the sort of book you need to take your time with or all the historical detail can become overwhelming.

Being able to choose just twelve battles is a feat worthy of praise in itself. Walsh provides analysis and a look at the consequences for the winners and losers after each battle. It's a book that can be read piece by piece or all at once.

A Rage to Conquer was such an interesting and informative read about some of the greatest battles in western history. Although it did take me a long time to read it just because of the length and how complex the language was, I did find it really interesting to pick up when I was wanting a non fiction history read. The chapters were incredibly long because each battle and leader was a single chapter, which I think could've been broken down into different parts with multiple chapters in each part to make it a bit easier to digest and give more stopping places. The Afterword about 9/11 was the only thing I really had an issue with because it felt very disjointed from the book and all that was coming through was the author's political rage. It just did not seem like the same book at all and really wasn't necessary, felt like a completely different theme and voice. But overall, really enjoyed the book and learned a lot from it!

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC! I really wanted to like this book, and I loved the idea of the twelve big battles, but I was so bogged down in the flower language and historical details that I often could not even figure out the main battle that was being explained. I just could not get into this and into the style of writing. Some people will (and I can see did) love it, but it was not for me.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in return for an honest opinion.

A Rage to Conquer written by Michael Walsh is a well-researched book. For me, the book read more like a school textbook and I found it uninteresting at times. The author did a lot of research and included excerpts from other texts throughout, but the book to me was average. The book has a feel of a required reading text in a college world history class.

I really enjoyed learning about these battles in this book, the overall research was really well done and thought it kept the reader engaged. Michael Walsh has a strong writing style and had that history element that I wanted.

Walsh writes about battles that shaped the Western world. He goes back to Troy and goes through Alexander the Great clear to Patton. He doesn't go blow by blow, but rather looks at them in a bigger picture way at the impact they had on Western civilization and what was going on in the world around at the time. He looks at the leaders involved and the culture, and the religion and how all of that rolled together to affect what was going on militarily.

Walsh writes well, but his vocabulary is not eighth grade level. One small issue I had with that is that he uses phrases from other languages and doesn't always translate them. For those of us who don't know those languages, that is a little difficult. Most of the time, I could figure out what they meant from context, but it was a little annoying.

A much bigger issue I had was his take on Christianity and Judaism. He does not treat them well, basically just seeing them as sort of made-up religions that were really looking to conquer. It did put a damper on what was an otherwise good book.

One area I really did like was his take on American military leadership today. He is not kind to it. His guiding premise is that the military exists to fight wars and that wars are fought with a purpose and that purpose is only accomplished when the war is actually won. From presidential leadership through general leadership he takes the US military to task for no longer doing that. As he rightly points out, the US hasn't won anything since WWII.

Overall, a good read.

To the educated, literate victor go the spoils of writing history in their favor. Often, said educated, literate victor is a white man of the western world, and so we have A Rage to Conquer. The title tells us these battles of which Michael Walsh writes will be of the western world, fair enough, but early on in the book it’s implied that it might as well be the whole world. And since there’s little to no written record of what other civilizations were up to when a white man from Europe wasn’t around to subjugate them, this book doesn’t cover people like Genghis Khan, the constant evolution of power through the Olmecs, Toltecs, Mayans and Aztecs. The conquest and management of competing tribes by the Incas across a large portion of South America. It barely touches on the fear struck in the hearts of other North American indigenous tribes by the Comanche, Apache and Sioux. And women! Bah! A cause of wars and an unnecessary distraction from war except for their ability to be the bearers of progeny for more wars of the future. Don’t tell the Vikings or Boudicca this. Walsh fairly reminds us that we should read about war in the context of the time in which it took place. But often interjects his own feelings and opinions into interpreting these events that convey to the reader that he would happily go back to the good old days where you beheaded someone when they offended your honor rather than attempt the wimpy progressiveness of the modern age. When I decided to read this, I was hoping to get more than a high-level blow-by-blow of battles set off by women, religion and pride but that’s mainly what this is-in the western world. If you’re looking for how war advanced things like transportation, technology and medicine (something that was impressive to observe over the course of the Great War as laid out in the World War I Museum in Kansas City) you won’t find it here. If you’re looking for to understand tactics, adaptability and interpreting the motives of your opponent, read The Art of War; it has stood the test of time for a reason. Occasionally interesting, this book was mostly boring to me for not covering something rarely written about, or not covering something regularly written about in a new or unique way. A complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own.