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Killing A Bad Strategy Before It Kills you

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Alexander the Great supposedly kept a copy of The Iliad on his nightstand and a dagger under his pillow. His ambition—to become Achilles—was just out of reach. The means to do it—a dagger—was directly within grasp. On Grand Strategy by historian John Lewis Gaddis covers roughly 2,500 years of history, pulling from writers, statesmen, theologians, and political philosophers. Rather than presenting a single thesis, the book is more of a synthesis—something Gaddis pieced together over decades of teaching. The book is dense at times, simply because of the sheer range of ideas it engages with. But it stands as one of the most concise and nuanced explorations of grand strategy. I first encountered these ideas as a student in John’s class at Yale. The book draws on sources as varied as historian Thucidydes, political philosopher Machiavelli, strategist Carl von Clausewitz, psychologist Daniel Kahneman, novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald, and many, many others. The cover of On Grand Strategy feature

Killing A Bad Strategy Before It Kills you How to use limited means to achieve aspirational ends Rob Henderson Feb 09, 2025 345 12 81 Share Subscribe Share Give a gift subscription Alexander the Great supposedly kept a copy of The Iliad on his nightstand and a dagger under his pillow. His ambition—to become Achilles—was just out of reach. The means to do it—a dagger—was directly within grasp. On Grand Strategy by historian John Lewis Gaddis covers roughly 2,500 years of history, pulling from writers, statesmen, theologians, and political philosophers. Rather than presenting a single thesis, th

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