Invisible Armies: An Epic History of Guerrilla Warfare from Ancient Times to the Present

As fitting for the twenty-first century as von Clausewitzs On War was in its own time, Invisible Armies is a complete global history of guerrilla uprisings through the ages.

Beginning with the first insurgencies in the ancient worldwhen Alexander the Great discovered that fleet nomads were harder to defeat than massive conventional armiesMax Boot, best-selling author and military advisor in Iraq and Afghanistan, masterfully guides us from the Jewish rebellion against the Roman Empire up through the horrors of the French-Indochina War and the shadowy, post-9/11 battlefields of today. Relying on a diverse cast of unforgettable charactersnot only Mao and Che but also the legendary Italian nationalist Giuseppe Garibaldi, the archaeologist-turnedmilitary commander T. E. Lawrence, and the Quiet American Edward Lansdale, among othersBoot explodes everything we thought we knew about unconventional combat. The result is both an enthralling read and our most important work on nontraditional warfare. 70 illustrations; 8 maps