The Oxford Companion to Military History is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how our world has been shaped, and continues to be shaped, by conflict. It is a comprehensive A-Z guide to warfare from the classical period to the present day. Over 1,300 entries, by a team of more than 150 specialists, cover subjects such as weapons and equipment, people - military leaders, theorists, inventors - wars, campaigns, and battles, strategy and tactics, logistics, fortifications, life in the military, military literature, and medicine. In addition wide-ranging contextual entries discuss topics as diverse as animals in war and pacifism. There are over 70 specially commissioned maps, which show the course of major battles and campaigns in detail, and 15 pages of diagrams ranging from missiles to manoeuvres. This book is already becoming a point of first reference for any question of military history. There is nothing quite like it in print.