The book contains about 750 miniature stories. Its characters are Alexander the Great and Hannibal, Julius Caesar and Charlemagne, Genghis Khan and Tamerlane, Frederick II and Napoleon, Cromwell and J. Washington, Nelson and Grant, outstanding commanders, monarchs, politicians, and military thinkers who have gone down in world history. The book includes eleven chapters, covering all major historical periods from ancient times to the First World War. The chapters are preceded by brief historical sketches of the period described. The genre of the book and the selection of plots will allow the reader to learn a lot of new and curious things about major events in general military history and its personalities, to appreciate the great, heroic and immortal in comparison with the small, transitory and ridiculous. The plots are based on information from a wide variety of written sources on the military history of various eras and peoples, and are based on archaeographic, documentary and biographical materials.