cover image Hannibal and Me: What History’s Greatest Strategist Can Teach Us About Success and Failure

Hannibal and Me: What History’s Greatest Strategist Can Teach Us About Success and Failure

Andreas Kluth. Riverhead, $26.95 (336p) ISBN 978-1-59448-812-2

Several books on the legendary achievements of Hannibal have dwelled on one or two aspects of the ingenious general’s life, but none has tackled the tricky mix of the impact of his life choices on and off the battlefield as well as this new analysis. Kluth, the West Coast correspondent for the Economist, brings a contemporary slant to Hannibal’s military successes. Outnumbered by Roman legions, Hannibal couldn’t win with brute force alone, but needed shrewd strategies and tactics. Bred to be a great soldier, Hannibal took the helm at age 26 in Carthage, then famously crossed the Alps to defeat one Roman army after another. For students of history or military tactics, Kluth does superior work in spelling out the elusive values of success and failure,: he explains how, like Hannibal, you can make your enemies defeat themselves; he also considers others like Fabius, who kept Hannibal on edge by attacking wherever Hannibal’s troops were not; and Kluth fast-forwards to today’s world, showing how Steve Jobs, like the ancients, learned to turn disaster into triumph. Realistic and timely, Kluth’s book uses historic truths to move us past the frequent traps of success and failure to mold practical, productive lives. (Jan.)