The Cambridge Illustrated History of Warfare

Cambridge Illustrated Histories

by Geoffrey Parker (Editor)

The Cambridge Illustrated History of Warfare provides a unique account of Western warfare from antiquity to the present. The book treats all aspects of the subject from the Greeks to the nuclear age: the development of warfare on land, sea and air; weapons and technology; strategy and defense; discipline and intelligence. Throughout, there is an emphasis on the socio-economic aspects of war: who pays for it, how can its returns be measured, and to what extent does it explain the rise of the West to global dominance over two millennia? Geoffrey Parker is one of the world's leading authorities on military history and is the editor of The Times Atlas of World History (1993) and the author of The Military Revolution (Cambridge,1988).

Genres: History, Military History, Nonfiction, Military Fiction, War, Reference, Ancient History

416 pages, Paperback

First published September 29, 1995

About the author

Geoffrey Parker is Andreas Dorpalen Professor of European History and an Associate of the Mershon Center at The Ohio State University. He has published widely on the social, political and military history of early modern Europe, and in 2012 the Royal Dutch Academy recognized these achievements by awarding him its biennial Heineken Foundation Prize for History, open to scholars in any field, and any period, from any country.

Parker has written or co-written thirty-nine books, including The Military Revolution: Military innovation and the rise of the West, 1500-1800 (Cambridge University Press, 1988), winner of the 'best book prize' from both the American Military Institute and the Society for the History of Technology; The Grand Strategy of Philip II (Yale University Press, 1998), which won the Samuel Eliot Morison Prize from the Society of Military History; and Global Crisis: War, Climate Change and Catastrophe in the Seventeenth Century (Yale University Press, 2013), which won the Society of Military History’s Distinguished Book Prize and also one of the three medals awarded in 2014 by the British Academy for ‘a landmark academic achievement… which has transformed understanding of a particular subject’.

Before moving to Ohio State in 1997, Parker taught at Cambridge and St Andrews universities in Britain, at the University of British Columbia in Canada, and at Illinois and Yale Universities in the United States, teaching courses on the Reformation, European history and military history at both undergraduate and graduate levels. He has directed or co-directed over thirty Doctoral Dissertations to completion, as well as several undergraduate theses. In 2006 he won an OSU Alumni Distinguished Teaching Award.

He lives in Columbus, Ohio, and has four children. In 1987 he was diagnosed as having Multiple Sclerosis. His latest book is Imprudent King: A New Life of Philip II (Yale University Press, 2014).

Reviews

[Clif · Rating 4 out of 5]

First a pet peeve - why is it necessary to make a book glossy from cover to cover forcing the reader to heft over 3 pounds every time he or she reads it? I have never had my arm muscles ache as much as with this 400 page book!

Ok, on to content.

Warfare is a comprehensive look at the way men have gone to battle since the rise of the West in ancient Greece. Using detailed diagrams when necessary, the reader can see how manpower was deployed and how weapons were used.

Particularly interesting to me were the diagrams of the Greek phalanx and the Roman centuries, examples of the discipline and technique that along with technology helped the West to defeat opponents. Did you know that a major factor in the success of Alexander the Great was the ability of his troops to carry all they needed thus avoiding a long supply line and crowd of camp followers?

This book is filled with insightful commentary on why armed conflicts turned out the way they did. Why was the huge Spanish Armada defeated by the relatively insignificant (at the time) English Navy? What was the Needlegun and why did it give the Prussians an advantage? How did Cortez with just a few hundred Spaniards defeat tens of thousands of Aztecs?

The tide of battle can be turned by weather, by leadership or the lack thereof, by technology and other factors. You will find yourself on an informative march through over 2000 years of conflict up to the 1991 war in Iraq. On finishing this book, I wondered how the Bush directed "war of choice" in 2003 would be seen by such a history as this.

As one would expect, more recent wars are treated in more detail with excellent accounts of WW1 and WW2. Happily, the book doesn't get bogged down in detailed maps of tactical movements of armies on the field unless it aids in making the reader aware of some new battlefield technique. Likewise, there are no long discussions of particular weapons. The goal is always to ask - how did things change and why?

Provided you work out at the gym to build up your biceps for this brick of a book, I think you will be rewarded by the fact packed, concise writing supported with excellent illustrations. In war, victory or defeat can happen as a result of unpredictable factors but, over time, superior practices and technologies have a telling effect. The persistent rise of the West was no accident. Read this book to find out how it happened.

[Jan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very Western centric with a marked US emphasis. Uneven contributions stretching from the unconvincingly idiosyncratic David Hansson to the magisterial and clearly articulated Williamson Murray. Not a global approach and thus of limited value vis a vis the title

[Bryan J. Pitchford, MFA · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a mandatory read on the list for United States Army Command & General Staff College. We were assigned passages from the book rather than being required to read it cover to cover. I am interested in History and this was one of the few enjoyable blocks in the Army course. However, I graduated from the American public school system several years ago and I was not immediately invested in reading mandatory material. This book provided an insightful and thoroughly engaging history of warfare!

[Niklas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Geoffrey Parkerin taidokkaasti toimitettu ja upeasti kuvitettu sodankäynnin historia tarkastelee aihettaan länsimaisesta perspektiivistä, rakentaen yhtenäisen tarinan antiikin Kreikasta tähän päivään. Varsinkin antiikin tapahtumien kuvaukset tempaavat mukaansa, mutta uutta aikaa kohti tultaessa näkökulman anglokeskeisyys paistaa lävitse turhankin paljon. Silti kirjaa on ilo lukea, ja tarjoaa se välillä kriittisiäkin näkökulmia sotaan, vaikkei kaikkein kriittisin linssi juurikaan osu Englannin ja Yhdysvaltojen politiikkaan.

[Anette Velez Rosado · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read it for military school

[Levie Galapon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overall is a your standard history reference book on warfare. Used it in my War and Civilization class and found it useful when writing papers during the course. Its a fairly detailed book and has great illustrations in this version that makes it a whole lot more fun to read.

[Jerry Mrizek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great comprehensive textbook covering military history from its roots to the modern age. It is easy to read, has great pictures/charts/diagrams and is solidly researched as it comes from one of the preeminent military historians in the world.

[Jeffry · Rating 2 out of 5]

Use it occassionally as a text book. Wish I didn't have to. Uneven as a general introduction.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very helpful overview of military history from ancient times through the 1990s

[Rangercab · Rating 4 out of 5]

excellent book. highly recommended

[Saim Ali]

aaqil

[Kanomi Okina ||Emily the Seraphim||]

Loved reading about the different ways of war!

[Clement Ying · Rating 4 out of 5]

History of the complex evolution of power, armor, mobility, organization and institution.

Brilliant.