Battle
Battle names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Battle a armies. In ancient times and the Middle Ages
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a armies. In ancient times and the Middle Ages, the battle ground was often chosen by agreement, and the battle was a mere trial of strength , a duel en gros; and, as the armies of the ancients were imperfectly organized, and the combatants fought very little at a distance, after the battle had begun maneuvers were much more difficult , and troops almost entirely beyond the control of the general. Under these circumstances, the battle depended almost wholly upon the previous arrangements and the valor of the troops. In modern times, however, the finest combinations, the most ingenious maneuvers, are rendered possible by by the better organization of the armies, and it is the skill of the general rather than the courage of the soldier that now determines the event of a battle. Battles are distinguished as offensive or defensive on either side, but there is a natural and ready transition from one method to the other. As a rule , the purely defensive attitude is condemned by tacticians, except in cases where the only object desirable is to maintain a position of vital consequence, the weight of precedent being in favor of the dash and momentum of an attacking force, even where opposed to superior forces. Where the greatest generals have acted upon the defensive, it has almost always been with the desire to develop an opportunity to pass the offensive. Tacticians have divided a battle into three periods: those of disposition, combat , and the decisive moment.
Battle a town in Sussex
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a town in Sussex, England, 6 miles N. W. of Hastings. Encircled on three sides by wooded hills, it consists of one street, extending along a valley from N. W. to S. E. An uninhabited heathland then, Senlac by name, it received its present name from the battle of Hastings, fought here on Oct. 14, 1066, when the Normans, led by William the Conqueror, overthrew the old English monarchy under King Harold. William, to commemorate his victory, founded in 1067, on the spot where Harold fell, a Abbey, which was endowed with all the land within a league of it, and had the privileges of a sanctuary. Battle Abbey now consists of decorated and perpendicular buildings occupying three sides of a quadrangle two sides in ruins, the third converted into a private dwellinghouse. splendid Benedictine
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's confidence in 1921 that "the skill of the general rather than the courage of the soldier" now decides a battle was written just after the Western Front had shown how artillery, machine guns and entrenchment could stall generalship for years; since then tanks, aircraft, radio, nuclear weapons, satellites and armed drones have stretched the discrete, day-long "battle" of the article into campaigns fought across whole theatres, and the three tidy periods of disposition, combat and decisive moment survive mainly as a teaching device. The Sussex town is much as described, still a single long street below the abbey, but the "private dwellinghouse" on the third side of the quadrangle has housed Battle Abbey School since the 1920s, and the abbey and battlefield are now in state care and open to visitors as one of England's most-visited historic sites. Historians have also grown less sure of the detail Collier's states flatly: the name Senlac was popularised by the Victorian historian E. A. Freeman rather than drawn from contemporary sources, and archaeologists have repeatedly failed to recover battle debris from the traditional slope, prompting serious arguments for Caldbec Hill or other nearby ground.
Written for this edition, 2026.