The Cambridge Illustrated History of Warfare (Cambridge Illustrated Histories)

The new edition of The Cambridge Illustrated History of Warfare, written and updated by a team of nine 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. "The origins of this book lie in the vision, advice, and acumen of Peter Richards, who died of cancer in 2009, aged fifty-eight. Peter invited me to edit a volume on warfare in a series of Illustrated Histories that he was developing for Cambridge University Press, and in 1993 he attended (and funded) a meeting of the contributors at which we thrashed out the overall framework of the volume and the common denominators for our chapters. Subsequently, Stuart McCready put together the images and designed the spreads. The result was The Cambridge Illustrated History of Warfare: The Triumph of the West, first published in 1995. A decade later, Eric Crahan of Cambridge University Press proposed and oversaw a new edition that extended the original text, which ended with the Gulf War of 1991. It appeared in 2009. Karen Anderson, Rachel Blaifeder, Nicola Chapman, and Deborah Gershenowitz have co-ordinated production of the present volume, which updates the previous version and takes the story down to March 2019. The contributors and I are very grateful to all of them for their enthusiasm, expertise, and hard work"-- Provided by publisher "The origins of this book lie in the vision, advice, and acumen of Peter Richards, who died of cancer in 2009, aged fifty-eight. Peter invited me to edit a volume on warfare in a series of Illustrated Histories that he was developing for Cambridge University Press, and in 1993 he attended (and funded) a meeting of the contributors at which we thrashed out the overall framework of the volume and the common denominators for our chapters. Subsequently, Stuart McCready put together the images and designed the spreads. The result was The Cambridge Illustrated History of Warfare: The Triumph of the West, first published in 1995. A decade later, Eric Crahan of Cambridge University Press proposed and oversaw a new edition that extended the original text, which ended with the Gulf War of 1991. It appeared in 2009. Karen Anderson, Rachel Blaifeder, Nicola Chapman, and Deborah Gershenowitz have co-ordinated production of the present volume, which updates the previous version and takes the story down to March 2019. The contributors and I are very grateful to all of them for their enthusiasm, expertise, and hard work."-- Fourni par l'éditeur Cover Half-title page Title page Copyright page Contents Preface Introduction: The Western Way of War Part I The Age of Massed Infantry 1 Genesis of the Infantry 600–350 BC 2 From Phalanx to Legion 350–250 BC 3 The Roman Way of War 250 BC–AD PART II The Age of Stone Fortifications 4 On Roman Ramparts 300–1300 5 New Weapons, New Tactics 1300–1500 6 The Gunpowder Revolution 1300–1500 PART III The Age of Guns and Sails 7 Ships of the Line 1500–1650 8 The Conquest of the Americas 1500–1650 9 Dynastic War 1494–1660 10 States in Conflict 1661–1763 11 Nations in Arms 1763–1815 PART IV The Age of Mechanized Warfare 12 The Industrialization of War 1815–1871 13 Towards World War 1871–1914 14 The West at War 1914–1918 15 The World in Conflict 1919–1941 16 The World at War 1941–1945 17 The Post-War World 1945–1991 18 The New World Disorder 1991–2019 Epilogue: The Future of Western Warfare Reference Guide Chronology Glossary Bibliography The Contributors Notes Picture Acknowledgements Index