"The origins of this book lie in the vision, advice, and acumen of Peter Richards, who died of cancer in 2009, aged fifty-eight. Peter invited me to edit a volume on warfare in a series of Illustrated Histories that he was developing for Cambridge University Press, and in 1993 he attended (and funded) a meeting of the contributors at which we thrashed out the overall framework of the volume and the common denominators for our chapters. Subsequently, Stuart McCready put together the images and designed the spreads. The result was The Cambridge Illustrated History of Warfare: The Triumph of the West, first published in 1995. A decade later, Eric Crahan of Cambridge University Press proposed and oversaw a new edition that extended the original text, which ended with the Gulf War of 1991. It appeared in 2009. Karen Anderson, Rachel Blaifeder, Nicola Chapman, and Deborah Gershenowitz have co-ordinated production of the present volume, which updates the previous version and takes the story down to March 2019. The contributors and I are very grateful to all of them for their enthusiasm, expertise, and hard work"-- Provided by publisher.

Genesis of the infantry 600—350 BC--From phalanx to legion 350—250 BC -- The Roman way of war 250 BC—AD 300 -- On Roman ramparts 300—1300 -- New weapons, new tactics 1300—1500 -- The gunpowder revolution 1300—1500 -- Ships of the line 1500—1650 -- The conquest of the Americas 1500—1650 -- Dynastic War 1494—1600 -- States in conflict 1661—1763 -- Nations in arms 1763—1815 -- The industrialization of war 1815—1871 -- Towards world war 1871—1941 -- The west at war 1914—1918 -- The world in conflict 1919—1941 -- The world at war 1941—1945 -- The new world disorder 1991—2019.