Hubris

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Hubris: The Tragedy of War in the Twentieth Century is a deeply analytical and thought-provoking exploration of how naive self-belief, coupled at times with sheer arrogance, has shaped military and political decision-making in the last century. The author is a renowned historian with a keen eye for ideological and strategic nuance who traces a consistent thread of hubris - excessive pride or self-confidence - from the First World War through to the Cold War, highlighting how leaders on all sides succumbed to self-deception, misjudged their adversaries, and overestimated their personal capabilities.

What makes Hubris stand out is the author’s skilful integration of political theory, diplomatic history and his military analysis. He doesn't just recount events, he probes the underlying psychology of leadership and the ideological rigidity that, history has shown us, often leads to disaster. Whether discussing the inflexibility of German military planners in 1914, the blind spots of Stalin and Hitler, or the miscalculations of the United States in Vietnam and Iraq, Haslam argues that arrogance often springs not from strength, but from a wilful ignorance of complex realities.

This book is densely packed with insight. As a reader, persistence is required and a willingness to follow its intellectually rigorous path. At times, Haslam’s prose is academic in style, but perseverance will reward the patient reader with a clearer understanding of how tragic patterns of behaviour repeat across different eras and regimes.

Ultimately, Hubris is not just a historical study, it’s a cautionary tale. Haslam offers a compelling argument to persuade the reader that leaders often fail, not because of poor intentions or insufficient intelligence, but because they become constrained by the information they are fed and by their own assumptions. For anyone interested in military history, international relations, or the psychology of power, Hubris is an essential, if sobering, read.

Reviewed by Matt Johnson
Matt Johnson served as a soldier and Metropolitan Police officer for nearly twenty-five years from 1975 until 1999.
More reviews by Matt Johnson

About Hubris

A leading expert on US-Russian relations reveals how the United States and its European allies set the course for the war in Ukraine-and offers a sobering indictment of American foreign policy since the fall of the Soviet Union.Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 should not have taken the world by surprise. The attack escalated a war that began in 2014 with the Russian annexation of Crimea, but its origins are visible as far back as the aftermath of the Cold War, when newly independent Ukraine moved to the center of tense negotiations between Russia and the West. The United States was a leading player in this drama. In fact, Jonathan Haslam argues, it was decades of US foreign policy missteps and miscalculations, unchecked and often reinforced by European allies, that laid the groundwork for the current war.Isolated, impoverished, and relegated to a second-order power on the world stage, Russia grew increasingly resentful of Western triumphalism in the wake of the Cold War. The United States further provoked Russian ire with a campaign to expand NATO into Eastern Europe-especially Ukraine, the most geopolitically important of the former Soviet republics. Determined to extend its global dominance, the United States repeatedly ignored signs that antagonizing Russia would bring consequences. Meanwhile, convinced that Ukraine was passing into the Western sphere of influence, Putin prepared to shift the European balance of power in Russia's favor.Timely and incisive, Hubris reveals the assumptions, equivocations, and grievances that have defined the West's relations with Russia since the twilight of the Soviet Union-and ensured that collision was only a matter of time.

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