
Seeds of Victory
Defeat, Triumph, and the American Way of War
James Ellman(Author)
Stackpole Books (Publisher)
Published on 15. September 2025
Book
Hardback
336 pages
978-0-8117-7677-6 (ISBN)
Description
Like all armed forces, the United States military-often celebrated for its victories-has been defeated on the battlefield throughout its long history. Unlike some others, the United States has shown a remarkable ability to bounce back from defeat: to learn from the loss, recover, and turn it into victory. In this book James Ellman, who has established a reputation for his reconsiderations of military history, takes a close look at nine such pivot points on the ground, in the air, and at sea, from the American Revolution through the Korean War:
Long Island (1776) to Saratoga (1777)
Charleston (1780) to Cowpens and Guilford Court House (1781)
Invasion of Canada (1812) to Battle of Lake Erie (1813)
First Bull Run (1861) to Antietam (1862)
Pearl Harbor (1941) to Midway (1942)
Luzon (1942) to Buna-Gona (1943)
Kasserine Pass (1943) to El Guettar (1943)
Schweinfurt/Ploesti (1943) to "Big Week" (1944)
Chongchon (1950) to Operation Ripper (1951)
In brisk narratives, Ellman describes each battle, explaining how it was fought and lost, and then shifts gears to detail how leaders-military as well as civilian-such as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Douglas MacArthur, Dwight Eisenhower, and George Patton assessed the factors that led to defeat, made changes to training, tactics, and strategy, and entered the next battle wiser and better prepared. Ellman finally recounts the subsequent battle, focusing on how it was shaped by what came before and how the victory was gained.
As this book makes clear, the history of the United States at war is, to a surprising degree, the story of tenacity in the wake of defeat, of flexibility and adaptability on the path to victory. This is essential reading for understanding how battles are lost and won.
Long Island (1776) to Saratoga (1777)
Charleston (1780) to Cowpens and Guilford Court House (1781)
Invasion of Canada (1812) to Battle of Lake Erie (1813)
First Bull Run (1861) to Antietam (1862)
Pearl Harbor (1941) to Midway (1942)
Luzon (1942) to Buna-Gona (1943)
Kasserine Pass (1943) to El Guettar (1943)
Schweinfurt/Ploesti (1943) to "Big Week" (1944)
Chongchon (1950) to Operation Ripper (1951)
In brisk narratives, Ellman describes each battle, explaining how it was fought and lost, and then shifts gears to detail how leaders-military as well as civilian-such as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Douglas MacArthur, Dwight Eisenhower, and George Patton assessed the factors that led to defeat, made changes to training, tactics, and strategy, and entered the next battle wiser and better prepared. Ellman finally recounts the subsequent battle, focusing on how it was shaped by what came before and how the victory was gained.
As this book makes clear, the history of the United States at war is, to a surprising degree, the story of tenacity in the wake of defeat, of flexibility and adaptability on the path to victory. This is essential reading for understanding how battles are lost and won.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania
United States
Product notice
With dust jacket
Illustrations
32 BW Photos, 18 Maps, 1 Tables, 2 Charts
Dimensions
Height: 233 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
572 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8117-7677-6 (9780811776776)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
07/2025
Stackpole Books
€19.77
Available for download
Person
James Ellman holds degrees from Tufts and Harvard. He has also written Hitler's Great Gamble: A New Look at German Strategy, Operation Barbarossa, and the Axis Defeat in World War II (Stackpole, 2019) and MacArthur Reconsidered: General Douglas MacArthur as a Wartime Commander (Stackpole, 2023). He lives in Hawaii.