"A History of Combat and Culture spans the globe and the centuries to explore the way ideas shape the conduct of warfare. Drawing its examples from Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, East Asia, and America, John A. Lynn challenges the belief that technology has been the dominant influence on combat from ancient times to the present day. The author examines the relationship between the real and the ideal, arguing that feedback between the two follows discernable paths. Battle rejects the currently fashionable notion of a "Western way of warfare" and replaces it with more nuanced concepts of varied and evolving cultural patterns of combat."-- From the book jacket.

Preface: Requiem for the universal soldier -- Written in blood : the classical Greek drama of battle and the western way of war -- Subtleties of violence : ancienct Chinese and Indian texts on warfare -- Chivalry and chevauchée : the ideal, the real, and the perfect in medieval European warfare -- Linear warfare : images and ideals of combat in the age of enlightenment -- Victories of the conquered : the native character of the Sepoy -- The sun of Austerlitz : romantic visions of decisive battle in nineteenth-century Europe -- The merciless fight : race and military culture in the Pacific War -- Crossing the Canal : Egyptian effectiveness and military culture in the October War -- Epilogue: Terrorism and "evil" : forming a new discourse on war at the dawn of the twenty-first century -- Appendix: The discourse and the reality of war : a cultural model.