The Hinge Factor: How Chance And Stupidity Have Changed History

From the wooden horse of Troy to a barrel of schnapps in Romania to a photograph that changed the United States's role in Vietnam, Erik Durschmied shows how the unpredictable shaped world history. Despite impossible odds, invincible armies have fallen to their weaker opponents. How? Why? Mostly, Durschmied argues, because of a "hinge factor", a fluke or mistake or apparently trivial detail that decides the outcome ora major battle. Conflicts are often determined by the caprice of weather, erroneous intelligence, heroism from unlikely sources, or personal incompetence; in other words, the unpredictable. Drawing from historical accounts and personal documents, Durschmied delivers the perfect book for the armchair historian and military buff alike.