From Alexander the Great's 331 BC rout of Darius III to Great Britain's 1982 re-conquest of the Falkland Islands, the author of the Second World War Experience series examines some of history's pivotal battles to determine the human factors that decided their outcomes. Stressing the importance of leadership, courage, deception, timing, and good fortune, Richard Overy individually profiles and reappraises such conflicts as Thermopylae, Marathon, Austerlitz, Pearl Harbor, Little Big Horn, Gettysburg, Kursk, the Tet Offensive, Spartacus's revolt, and Hernán Cortés's siege of Tenochtitlán. More than 150 color and black and white illustrations appear throughout, including vintage photographs and period art.