World History of Warfare (review)

Abstract

This book deserves a review article, not a review, both because it is one of the best attempts to tackle its topic to appear in recent years and because, as a textbook for introductory college courses in military history, it will clearly be influential. Deservedly so, as the goals of the project are both worthy and largely fulfilled. The authors, all professors at one of the leading centres of military history, the University of Calgary, aim to comprehend both the operational and the war and society approaches, while each chapter seeks to discuss the attitude of a particular period toward warfare, the extent to which war influenced society then, the impact of technology, the nature of armies and the experience of soldiers. There is also an attempt to include more "pre-modern" conflict than is usually the case, as well as giving due weight to non-Western material.