No other similar work so thoroughly and objectively highlights the strategic, tactical and logistic continuities and changes that have animated war from the time of the ancient Greeks to the Yom Kippur War. No other work steps through the past twenty-five centuries with more impartiality... There has not been such a comprehensive and useful book in generations. -- Alan Gropman, Washington Post With keen insight and powerful prose, historian Archer Jones culminates a lifetime of study, reading, and writing about military history with this seminal work. With great clarity and precision, Jones examines 2,500 years of recorded conflict in the Western world, and extrapolates the operational techniques of tactics, logistics, and weapon systems that have provided a continuum through the years. -- Mike Fisher, Infantry A masterful 2,500-year overview of the operational aspects of land-based warfare in the West, with appeal for both fans of military history and general readers... An altogether splendid synthesis. -- Kirkus Reviews This book displays Archer Jones's unparalleled mastery of tactical and operational military history over a broad chronological span. -- Russell F. Weigley, author of History of the United States Army Archer Jones's work has no current competition as a broadly based military history for the general American reader... Excellent reading. -- Theodore Ropp, author of War in the Modern World
