In this provocative and entertaining study, Bruce Allen Watson examines seven sieges while providing commentary on the nature and evolution of combat across the centuries. The sieges covered are Jerusalem at the end of the First Crusade in 1099, Malta in 1565, Sebastopol during the Crimean War, Kut-al-Amara in World War I, Singapore in World War II, Dien Bien Phu, and the 1991 Gulf War.