author
Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart
1895–1970
A soldier turned strategist, he became one of the 20th century’s best-known military thinkers by arguing that wars are often won by maneuver and surprise rather than costly head-on attack. His books on war, strategy, and leadership helped shape how generations of readers understood both world wars.
2 Audiobooks
Paris : or, the future of war
by Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart
A greater than Napoleon : Scipio Africanus
by Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart
About the author
Born in Paris on October 31, 1895, Basil Henry Liddell Hart was educated in England and began studies at Cambridge before the First World War interrupted them. He served as an officer on the Western Front, and his experience of trench warfare deeply shaped his later views about the dangers of direct assault and attritional fighting.
After leaving the army, he built a major career as a military writer, historian, and commentator. He wrote influential works on strategy and military history, including studies of Sherman, Scipio Africanus, and the two world wars, and became especially associated with the idea of the "indirect approach"—the belief that the smartest path to victory often avoids the enemy’s strongest point.
Liddell Hart was knighted and remained a widely read, sometimes debated voice in military thought until his death in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, on January 29, 1970. Whether readers come to him for battlefield history or big ideas about leadership and strategy, his work still stands out for its clarity, confidence, and ambition.