WOW...Where have you been all my life?

Sometimes a book comes along that you have been waiting for all your life. THIS is one of those books.

I am so excited about this book that I may just have blogging book club every week on this bad boy...it is that awesome.

As you know, your Grouchy Historian is a keen student of Clausewitz, Thucydides, Jomini, Sun Tzu and all things strategic, and I frequently share my minor observations. In addition, I have been branching out to learn about business strategy and even political strategy.

GUESS WHAT, this book does all three! Yup, finally a book covering the Grand Unifying Theory of All Strategic Thought...at least in the Western World. I have only read a couple of chapters and I am HOOKED. I mean seriously, I could make an outstanding year look course on strategy, strategic thought, strategic planning...the whole thing from this book...all it needs is a pocket to store bacon and it would be the only book I ever read.....ok, maybe not, but it is darn good.

I have to say, it's pretty impressive when I break out the highlighter and start marking up sentences....cuz I usually NEVER mark in my books...but this feels so much like an awesome textbook that I just had to...here are some of my favorite first quotes.

"...strategy comes into play where there is actual or potential conflict...that is why strategy is much more than a plan....Strategy is required when others might frustrate one's plans because they have different and possibly opposing interests and concerns."

Now this may seem obvious, but even this author, a professor at King's College in London, grapples with what exactly strategy IS...which is the beginning of understanding, as it were.

OR, as my old comrade Clausewitz would say..."Because war is an act of force, committed against a living, reacting opponent, it produces three interactions that, in theory, lead to three extremes: maximum use of force; total disarmament of the enemy; and maximum exertion of strength"

So prepare, me hearties! I sense a few weeks on this book as I try and dissect this bad boy and start putting together my own thoughts of the Grand Unifying Theory of All Strategic Thought...my new favorite thing.