One of the world' s foremost military historians offers a sweeping view of the place of warfare in civilization. Probing the meanings, motivations, and methods underlying war throughout history, John Keegan suggests why, in 2,000 years, humanity has not advanced far beyond the acceptance of violence on honorable terms. Keegan argues that while all civilizations owe their origins to war-making, their survival ultimately depends on taming man s enormous and enduring capacity for violence.

Keegan offers a sweeping view of the place of warfare in human culture and a brilliant exposition of the human impulse toward violence. Beginning with the premise that all civilizations owe their origins to warmaking, Keegan probes the meanings, motivations, and methods underlying war in different societies over the course of more than two thousand years, demonstrating how particular cultures give rise to their own styles of warmaking. A History of Warfare also examines the great changes in military technology from the discoveries of bronze and iron to the 20th century mobilization of science and industry culminating in the development of the atomic bomb.

JOHN KEEGAN is Britain’s foremost military historian. As the Defence Editor of The Daily Telegraph, John Keegan has commented on The Iraq War over the past year. He is the author of many bestselling books including The First World War, A History Of Warfare, Intelligence in War, and others. For many years Keegan was the Senior Lecturer in Military History at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst,and he has been a Fellow at Princeton University and Delmas Professor of History at Vassar. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, received the OBE in the First Gulf War honours list and was knighted in the Millennium honours list. He lives in Wiltshire, England.]]>

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