This book looks at those people who have shaped the course of war. Broad in geographical and chronological scope, it concentrates on all the major periods and conflicts in history, from 1453 to the present day.

In 1683, an Ottoman army that stretched from horizon to horizon set out to seize the "Golden Apple," as Turks referred to Vienna. The ensuing siege pitted battle-hardened Janissaries wielding seventeenth-century grenades against Habsburg armies, widely feared for their savagery. The walls of Vienna bristled with guns as the besieging Ottoman host launched bombs, fired cannons, and showered the populace with arrows during the battle for Christianity's bulwark. Each side was sustained by the hatred of its age-old enemy, certain that victory would be won by the grace of God.

The Great Siege of...

First published in 1982. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Presents the story of the evolution of modern Bahrain through the life and times of Shaikh Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, ruler of the country, from 1942 through the crucial phase of transition. The book covers his religious and political dimensions, and Bahrain's postwar development and future.