'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
