Sources: Battles That Changed American History: 100 of the Greatest Victories and Defeats

Battles That Changed American History: 100 of the Greatest Victories and Defeats. By Spencer C. Tucker. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2014. 355 pages. acid free $89 (ISBN: 978-1-4408-2861-4). Ebook available (978-1-4408-2862-1), call for pricing.

A single volume encyclopedia, Spencer C. Tucker's Battles that Changed American History: 100 of the Greatest Victories and Defeats contains 100 entries on military battles from the colonial period to the Iraq War. Each entry averages about three pages in length, contains an information box that lists the date of the battle, the location, opponents and winners, the commanders, approximate number of troops, and a brief sentence on the importance of the battle and all entries end with a brief suggested reading list. Many entries also contain a map of the battle and some also include illustrations or photographs of the battle.

With a strict military history framework, this volume excels in providing the reader with a timeline of troop movements interspersed with specifics such as the number of casualties and weaponry. Military history enthusiasts may appreciate Tucker's fact-based and concise recounting of specific battles that proved to have decisive outcomes in larger military campaigns. The lay reader may also welcome the information box at the beginning of each entry, which ascribes a winner and loser, listing the sides, etc.

From the time of Spanish exploration to the present day, military campaigns and war have affected the course of American history. While Spencer C. Tucker's Battles that Changed American History: 100 of the Greatest Victories and Defeats, addresses 100 battles from the time of Spanish exploration to the present day, this volume takes a very narrow approach to the consequences of military campaigns and war on American history. Battles that Changed American History fails to situate these battles within the broader cultural, economic, and political context. Tucker's volume also fails to provide general historical context and attributes the importance of a specific battle only with an exceedingly narrow military context.

Encyclopedias edited by Spencer C. Tucker often set high standards for other reference works on similar topics as his tend to include entries from a wide range of perspectives including social, cultural, economic, and political perspectives. However, this volume does not attain this high standard. Although more expensive, Tucker's 2012, four volume Almanac of American Military History (ABC-CLIO) provides readers with a broader historical overview and more contextual understanding. While Battles that Changed American History provides readers with detailed information about 100 battles throughout American history, the explicit military history focus of this volume will only appeal to a small audience of military history enthusiasts. With its lack of historical context, this volume fails to provide an adequate historical overview of any given battle. Therefore, this narrowly focused encyclopedia is only recommended for military college libraries and large public libraries.—Joseph A. Hurley, Interim Director, Collaborative University Research & Visualization Environment (CURVE), Georgia State University Library, Atlanta, Georgia