The Cambridge History of Warfare
The Cambridge History of Warfare
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The new edition of The Cambridge History of Warfare, written and updated by a team of eight distinguished military historians, examines how war was waged by Western powers across a sweeping timeframe beginning with classical Greece and Rome, moving through the Middle Ages and the early modern period, down to the wars of the twenty-first century in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. The book stresses five essential aspects of the Western way of war: a combination of technology, discipline, and an aggressive military tradition with an extraordinary capacity to respond rapidly to challenges and to use capital rather than manpower to win. Although the focus remains on the West, and on the role of violence in its rise, each chapter also examines the military effectiveness of its adversaries and the regions in which the West's military edge has been – and continues to be – challenged.
- Offers a fully updated account of war in the West, with a new chapter on modern warfare
- Continues to demonstrate that military and naval superiority was crucial to the rise of the West
- Focuses on Western military progress but explores the military effectiveness of other regions
Reviews & endorsements
'Here is the story of war as the driving force in the rise of the West from the Greeks to our own day, now updated to 2019. In the fifteen years since the first edition of this book, war has unfortunately not become less central to our concerns - just the opposite. This remarkable volume, written by some of the world's leading experts in military history, helps us to understand why and how something as terrible as war remains so important in the history of the West and the world. Rarely has so much learning, lucidity, and wisdom been found between two covers.' Barry Strauss, Cornell University, and author of Ten Caesars: Roman Emperors from Augustus to Constantine
'This is, simply, the best survey of the history of warfare in half a century. It explains what the Western way of war is, whence it came, and how it dominated the planet down to the present day. The product of the collaboration of some of the best military historians now writing, it offers judgements as well as a compelling narrative, an argument as well as a story. There can be no better introduction to the study of military history.' Eliot A. Cohen, Robert E. Osgood Professor, Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies
'Any historian would do well to read this.' John W. Davis, Decatur Daily
Product details
June 2020Paperback
9781316632765
608 pages
214 × 139 × 34 mm
0.78kg
20 maps
Available
Table of Contents
- Preface
- Introduction. The Western way of war Geoffrey Parker
- Part I. The Age of Massed Infantry:
- 1. Genesis of the infantry, 600–350 BC Victor Davis Hanson
- 2. From phalanx to legion, 350–250 BC Victor Davis Hanson
- 3. The Roman way of war, 250 BC–AD 300 Victor Davis Hanson
- Part II. The Age of Stone Fortifications:
- 4. On Roman ramparts, 300–1300 Bernard S. Bachrach
- 5. New weapons, new tactics, 1300–1500 Christopher Allmand
- 6. The gunpowder revolution, 1300–1500 Geoffrey Parker
- Part III. The Age of Guns and Sails:
- 7. Ships of the line, 1500–1650 Geoffrey Parker
- 8. The conquest of the Americas, 1500–1650 Patricia Seed
- 9. Dynastic war, 1494–1660 Geoffrey Parker
- 10. States in conflict, 1661–1763 John A. Lynn
- 11. Nations in arms, 1763–1815 John A. Lynn
- Part IV. The Age of Mechanized Warfare:
- 12. The industrialization of war, 1815–1871 Williamson A. Murray
- 13. Towards world war, 1871–1914 Williamson A. Murray
- 14. The West at war, 1914–1918 Williamson A. Murray
- 15. The world in conflict, 1919–1941 Williamson A. Murray
- 16. The world at war, 1941–1945 Williamson A. Murray
- 17. The post-war world, 1945–1991 Williamson A. Murray
- 18. The new world disorder, 1991–2019 Peter Mansoor and Geoffrey Parker
- Epilogue. The future of Western warfare Geoffrey Parker and Leif Torkelsen
- Reference guide
- Chronology
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- The contributors
- Notes
- Index.
