"This book is unique -- the stirring story of war in all its phases from 490 B.C. to our own day. Since its first appearance fifteen years ago it has become a classic, a storehouse of military lore for the specialist and layman alike. The present edition is thoroughly revised and greatly enlarged. The World War II chapter have been rewritten to make use of sources not available earlier, particularly German and Japanese documents and memoirs. Completely new material has been added, covering more recent events such as the cold war between the Communist states and Western nations, the shooting war in Korea, and the Lebanon intervention. There is a full chronological table as well as a full bibliography of sources in chronological order, and new diagrams and maps make a total of nearly 140 illustrations. Mr. Montross is superbly readable because in telling his story he never loses sight of the fact that wars are waged by men. He is concerned first of all with people, with those who fought and the great conquerors who led them."--Jacket.

Preface -- Part one. The Classical Age. The Gymnastic Warfare of Greece ; Macedonia's Human Fortress ; Alexander against the World ; The Roman Legion ; Hanibal Crosses the Alps ; The Cohorts of Peace -- Part two. The Cavalry Cycle. The Dark Ages of War ; The Byzantine Horse-Archer ; Constantinople as a Bulwark ; The Crusades ; The Far East ; Longbow and Halberd ; The Dawn of Gunpowder -- Part three. The Military Renaissance. Pike and Arquebus ; The March of Islam ; The Huguenot Uprisings ; Revolt in the Netherlands ; Gustavus Adolphus ; The Thirty Years' War ; England's New Model -- Part four. Armed Diplomacy. War for Profit ; The Grand Monarch ; Marlborough and Eugene ; The King at Arms ; Frederick's Big Guns -- Part five. The Revolution in Tactics. The American Rifle ; French Horde Tactics ; General Bonaparte in Italy ; Sword of the Empire ; The War on the Peninsula ; The Road to Waterloo -- Part six. War's Machine Age. South American Revolution ; The Tactics of Reaction ; The New Warfare of the West ; The Decision in America ; German Blood and Iron ; The Prussia of the Orient -- Part seven. World War I : 1914. The Lights Go Out ; Deadlock on the Western Front ; The Sorrows of Victory ; Germany Wins the Peace ; The Resumption in 1939 -- Part eight. World War II. Hitler's Conquest of Europe ; Britain Fights for Survival ; War in the Balkans and Russia ; The War in the Pacific ; The End of the Beginning ; A Second Front in Europe ; Surrender of the Axis Powers ; The Sequel in Korea -- Chronological table -- Acknowledgments and sources -- Index.