Arnold J. Toynbee, the most famous professional historian of the twentieth century, is widely quoted as having declared that “History is just one damn thing after another.” This book argues that history is not about “things” at all but is all about turning points–the decisions, acts, innovations, errors, ideas, successes, and failures on which the shape of a nation’s life–our lives–depends. It presents the one hundred points at which America’s path decisively turned on its way to where we find ourselves today.

Columbus arrives in the New World

The first slaves arrive in America

Independence is declared

Female suffragists meet in Seneca Falls

Fort Sumter falls

A transcontinental railroad is completed

Edison lights his first electric lamp

FDR offers a “New Deal”

The B-29 Enola Gay drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima

Neil Armstrong sets foot on the moon

President Nixon creates the EPA

9/11, Obama, Sandy Hook, Russian election “meddling,” and the Age of Trump

These and many more are the crucial “plot points” in our grand national story, and bestselling historian Alan Axelrod presents them here.

The typical military history presents a chronicle of battles and wars and the commanders and troops who fought them. This book takes a different approach. It presents battles and wars and people aplenty, but they are not its ultimate subjects. This book is about the turning points that not only make military history dynamic but crucial to the story of humanity and civilization. This book is about the decisions, acts, innovations, errors, ideas, successes, and failures that shaped the evolution of military art and science–strategy, tactics, and technology–and, in doing so, shaped the course of world history.

Here are the 100 points–from the birth of warfare in the Battle of Megiddo, 1457 BC, to the ongoing evolution of military history on its newest battlefield, cyberspace–at which the path of the warrior decisively turned on its long journey to where we find ourselves today.

History celebrates George Washington as the leader of the American Revolution and the father of his country. But what has gone previously unexamined is Washington’s life as a twenty-two-year-old lieutenant colonel; he led four hundred American militiamen against a bigger, more experienced French army and paid a high price. Not only did Washington lose over a third of his men, but the Battle of Great Meadows was also the spark that ignited the French and Indian War.

Yet in the midst of this bitter battle, Washington forged the intellectual, visceral, and spiritual aspects that enabled him to achieve all that he did in the years that followed. In this never-before-told account, historian Alan Axelrod examines the geopolitical, financial, and intensely personal issues that shaped the leader Washington would become.

Known by his troops in World War II as “The GI General” because of his close identification with the men under his command, Omar Bradley commanded the Twelfth US Army Group in Europe. By the spring of 1945, this group contained four field armies, twelve corps, forty-eight divisions, and more than 1.3 million men, the largest exclusively American field command in US history. A mild mannered man, General Bradley created the impression less of a soldier than of a teacher, which he was during much of his early career in the Army. He earned a reputation as an eminent tactician and rose through the ranks to become a five-star general.

Alan Axelrod is a Business Week best-selling author. A respected authority on business and management topics, he has also written works of historical biography. In Elizabeth I CEO, his varied skills converge to produce an important book that is both informative and entertaining. When Elizabeth ascended the throne in 1558, England was the laughing stock of Europe. Economic, political, and religious calamities were numerous, and Elizabeth endured constant criticism. But by the end of her 45-year reign, England was one of the world’s mightiest nations. Axelrod uses the legendary Queen’s life as a model for modern leadership, and a powerful example of how one person can make an extraordinary difference. Elizabeth I CEO is an indispensable guide for today’s business managers and leaders. It is also an inspiring read for those taking their first steps up the corporate ladder, or those who simply love history. Nelson Runger’s narration gives a renewed energy to Elizabeth’s lessons, which are as relevant today as they were four centuries ago.

Fourteen Lessons to instruct, inspire, and encourage…
History’s great leaders have much to teach us, and no one outshines Alan Axelrod in extracting those lessons and applying them to today’s business world. His Elizabeth I, CEO and Patton on Leadership both became BusinessWeek bestsellers-and now, to follow his recent Winston Churchill, CEO, Axelrod has found a new and perhaps surprising subject for his popular format: Gandhi.
Gandhi, a CEO? Absolutely-and an incomparable example for our uncertain times, when we need leaders we can trust and admire. Not only was he a moral and intensely spiritual man, but also a supremely practical manager and a powerful agent for change, able to nurture the rebirth of an entire nation. To achieve this goal, he mastered the elements of personal leadership and institutional management. Axelrod looks at this much-studied figure in a way nobody has before, employing his fluid, engaging, and conversational style to bring each lesson to life through quotes and vivid examples from Gandhi’s life.

Immediately after the armistice was signed in November, 1918, an American journalist asked Paul von Hindenburg who won the war against Germany. He was the chief of the German General Staff, co-architect with Erich Ludendorff of Germany’s Eastern Front victories and its nearly war-winning Western Front offensives, and he did not hesitate in his answer. “The American infantry,” he said. He made it even more specific, telling the reporter that the final death blow for Germany was delivered by “the American infantry in the Argonne.”
The British and the French often denigrated the American contribution to the war, but they had begged for U.S. entry into the conflict, and their stake in America’s victory was, if anything, even greater than that of the United States itself. But How America Won World War I will not litigate the points of view of Britain and France. The book will accept as gospel the assessment of the top German leader whose job it had been to oppose the Americans directly-that the American infantry won the war-and this book will tell how the American infantry did it.

On August 12, 1944, Lieutenant Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., heir to one of America’s most glamorous fortunes, son of the disgraced former ambassador to Great Britain, and big brother to freshly minted PT-109 hero JFK, hoisted himself up into a highly modified B-24 Liberator bomber. The munitions he was carrying that day were fifty percent more powerful than TNT.
Kennedy’s mission was part of Operation Aphrodite/Project Anvil, a desperate American effort to rescue London from a rain of German V-1 and V-2 missiles. The decision to use these bold but crude precursors to modern-day drones against German V-weapon launch sites came from Air Corps high command. Lieutenant General Jimmy Doolittle, daring leader of the spectacular 1942 Tokyo Raid, and others concocted a plan to install radio control equipment in “war-weary” bombers, pack them with a dozen tons of high explosives, and fly them by remote control directly into the concrete German launch sites-targets too hard to be destroyed by conventional bombs. The catch was that live pilots were needed to get these flying bombs off the ground and headed toward their targets. Joe Jr. was the first naval aviator to fly such a mission. And-in the biggest man-made explosion before Hiroshima-it killed him.
Alan Axelrod’s Lost Destiny is a rare exploration of the origin of today’s controversial military drones as well as a searing and unforgettable story of heroism, WWII, and the Kennedy dynasty that might have been.

George S. Patton was a general who achieved greatness in his field by contradicting his own nature. A cavalryman steeped in romantic military tradition, he nevertheless pulled a reluctant American military into the most advanced realms of highly mobile armored warfare. An autocratic snob, Patton created unparalleled rapport and loyalty with the lowliest private in his command. An outspoken racist, he led the only racially integrated US military unit in World War II. A profoundly insecure individual, he made his Third Army the most self-confident and consistently victorious fighting force in the European theater. An exuberantly profane man, he prayed daily and believed God had destined him for military greatness.

Alan Axelrod delivers a fascinating account of Patton’s extraordinary life and legacy.

As commander of the Third Army, General George S. Patton, Jr.’s wartime success inspired the remarkable performance of his troops, and the grudging admiration of his enemies. Having stormed across France and Germany with lightning speed, Patton revealed himself as a courageous warrior, a gifted strategist, an inspiring communicator, a masterful motivator, and, most importantly, a brilliant leader.

Patton On Leadership distills Patton’s brilliance into essential lessons every leader must know to win in today’s merciless corporate wars.

Vibrant with the earthy wit and wisdom that was Patton’s hallmark, these lessons show managers how to develop and project a leadership image, communicate effectively across large organizations, establish clear priorities, build a winning team, mentor future leaders, resolve conflict, sustain optimum performance against all obstacles, and instill the kind of loyalty that inspires consistent outstanding achievement.

In a work equally engaging to current or future managers and history buffs alike, General Patton’s leadership in battle is turned into the ultimate manual for victory.

A journey of exploration through history’s great decisions and those who had the courage to make them.

In brief, compelling, and inspiring vignettes, bestselling historian Alan Axelrod pinpoints and investigates the make-or-break event in the lives and careers of some of history’s most significant figures.
Axelrod reexamines history by revealing the answer to the fascinating question of why the people who made history made their choices-and conveys the resonance of those choices today. The 46 profiles range from ancient times to the present day and include Cleopatra’s decision to rescue Egypt; Washington’s decision to cross the Delaware and win; Gandhi’s decision to prevail against the British Empire without bloodshed; Truman’s decision to drop the A-bomb and end WW II; Rosa Parks decision to sit in for civil rights; Boris Yeltsin’s decision to embrace a new world order; and Flight 93’s decision to take a stand against terror.

Using the same engrossing anecdotal format that has proved so popular in Profiles in Audacity, Alan Axelrod now turns to the dark side of audacious decision-making: those choices that, in retrospect, were shockingly wrongheaded.
Although Axelrod investigates some dumb decisions by stupid people and some evil decisions by evil people, the overwhelming majority of these decisions were made by good, smart people whose poor judgment produced disastrous, often irreversible results.
The 35 compelling and often poignant stories, which range from ancient times to today, include: The Trojan Horse; the Children’s Crusade; the sailing of the Titanic, and the false belief that it just couldn’t sink; Edward Bernays’s 1929 campaign to recruit women smokers; Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement of the Nazis; Ken Lay’s deception with Enron; and even the choice to create a “New Coke” and fix what wasn’t broke.
As with Profiles in Audacity, the deftly drawn vignettes will pique interest, satisfy curiosity, give pleasure, and present valuable lessons. And in addition to offering the same insightful analysis of the decision-making process, Folly also includes objective post-mortems that explain what went wrong and why. These are cautionary tales-albeit with exquisite twists ranging from acerbic to horrific.