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Oxford University Press has a series that covers classic battles from Ancient Greece to World War II. Each of these books discusses not only the battles themselves but how they were commemorated and their long term impact on history. The books try to understand not just how the battle took place, but why they became so important.

Anne Curry first sets the scene, illuminating how and why the battle was fought, as well as its significance in the wider history of the Hundred Years War. She then takes the Agincourt story through the centuries from 1415 to 2015, from the immediate, and sometimes surprising, responses to it on both sides of the Channel, through its reinvention by Shakespeare in King Henry V (1599), and the enduring influence of both the play and the film versions of it, especially the patriotic Laurence Olivier version of 1944, at the time of the D-Day landings in Normandy.

The Battle of El Alamein was the most important battle of the North African conflict between German and Italy and the British Empire. The battle, which was in reality, a series of battles, has entered military legend and it is one of the best-known battles of WWII. The battle was involved some of the most famous generals of the war, including Bernard Montgomery and Erwin Rommel. Significantly, the battle was a turning point in the European theater.

Simon Ball's book turns the interpretation of the battle on its head. Based on the intensive reading of the contemporary sources, in particular, the extensive and recently declassified British bugging of Axis prisoners of war, military historian Simon Ball turns Alamein on its head, explaining it as a cultural defeat for Britain. Ball's book is well worth a look.

The Battle of Culloden was the last battle fought on British soil by regular troops. The battle was short, brutal, one-sided and decisive. The British crushed the Jacobites and forced Bonnie Prince Charlie into exile in France. While the battle itself is of little note, the result of the battle was [[How Did the Battle of Culloden Change British and American History?|extremely consequential]] to Britain, Europe, and the North American colonies. Additionally, the Battle of Culloden and Jacobite uprising been romanticized. The books and television series Outlander center around the Jacobite uprising and the Battle of Culloden are just one example.

Pittock's book examines the battle and the brutal suppression of the Highland clans after the uprising ended. He seeks to correct the notion that battle was a dramatic clash, between Highlander and Lowlander, Celt and Saxon, Catholic and Protestant, the old and the new.

<i>Gallipoli</i> is a detailed account of the nations involved in that battle. The book focuses more on the aftermath in the participating nations. Macleod convincingly supports her argument that due to logistics, training, and politics the Allied plan could do nothing but fail. Additionally, she conveys the respect the enemy soldiers held for each other; respect that began as hatred.

In 1187 at the Battle of Hattin, the Muslim leader Saladin annihilated the Crusaders army of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem and forced the Europeans out of the Holy Land. The Battle of Hattin was a slaughter that fundamentally changed the Holy Land because Saladin, a Sunni Muslim, had retaken Jerusalem. Additionally, the war between Islam and Christendom intensified even as Crusaders' presence in the Holy Land waned.

Hattin ultimately led to several efforts by Crusaders to retake Jerusalem. For Muslims, Hattim was become of hope that they could foreigners and has transformed into a rallying cry for radical Sunni fundamentalists. France's book places the battle into its historical context.

The Battle of Waterloo has cast a long shadow over Europe. It ended the French Empire and Napoleon's aspirations and it significantly altered the direction of Europe. Unsurprisingly, the meaning and significance of Waterloo are different for all of the countries that participated in the battle. Alan Forrest walks through the reader through the battle but explores the consequences and the interpretations of Waterloo. Forrest answers how we remember Waterloo. Britain, France, Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands all view Waterloo through different a lens.

The Battle of Ypres was one of the most devasting and destructive battles of World War I. Mark Connelly and Stefan Goebel not walk readers through the battle itself, but explore the ways in which Ypres has been understood and interpreted by Britain and the Commonwealth, Belgium, France, and Germany, including the variants developed by the Nazis. People from different countries have struggled to impose their own narratives on the city and the region around it to make sense of the carnage from a national perspective. Significantly, Ypres has become the heart of the World War I battle tourism especially for tourists from Britain and other Commonwealth countries.