The authors have cogently synthesized an extensive literature to effectively demonstrate to nonspecialists how basic economic concepts can provide insights into the nature of war.

Includes maps of: Italy, ca. 1494; Locations of Battles, [1632-1815]; Thirty Years' War; Seven Years' War; [Civil] War in the East; Virginia Geography; Peninsula Campaign - Virginia, 1862; Grant's Advance, 1864.

Preface -- Economics -- Economics -- Principle I: Opportunity cost -- Principle II: Expected marginal costs and benefits -- Principle III: Substitution -- Principle IV: Diminishing marginal returns -- Principle V: asymmetric information and hidden characteristics -- Principle VI: Hidden actions and incentive alignments -- Conclusion: economics--and military history -- The high Middle Ages, 1000-1300: The case of the medieval castle and the opportunity cost of warfare -- Opportunity cost and warfare -- The ubiquity of castles -- The cost of castling -- The advantages of castles -- The cost of armies -- Castle building and the other principles of economics -- Conclusion -- The Renaissance, 1300-1600: the case of the condottieri and the military labor market -- The principal-agent problem -- Demand, supply, and recruitment -- Contracts and pay -- Control and contract evolution -- The development of permanent armies -- Condottieri and the other principles of economics -- Conclusion -- The age of battle, 1618-1815: the case of costs, benefits, and the decision to offer battle -- Expected marginal costs and benefits of battle -- The 1600s: Gustavus Adolphus and Raimondo de Montecuccoli -- The 1700s: Marlborough, de Saxe, and Frederick the Great -- Napoleonic warfare -- The age of battle and the other principles of economics -- Conclusion -- The age of revolution, 1789-1914: the case of the American Civil War and the economics of information asymmetry -- Information and warfare -- North, South, and the search for information -- Major Eastern campaigns through Gettysburg -- Grant in Virginia -- The American Civil War and the other principles of economics -- Conclusion -- The age of the world wars, 1914-1945: the case of diminishing marginal returns to the strategic bombing of Germany in World War II -- A strategic bombing production function -- Bombing German war production -- Bombing the supply chain and the civilian economy -- Bombing German morale -- Assessing the effect of strategic bombing -- Strategic bombing and the other principles of economics -- Conclusion -- The age of the Cold War, 1945-1991: the case of capital-labor substitution and France's Force de Frappe -- History of the Force de Frappe -- The force post-De Gaulle -- Justifying the force -- The force's effect on France's conventional arms -- Substituting nuclear for conventional forces -- The Force de Frappe and the other principles of economics -- Conclusion -- Economics and military history in the twenty-first century -- Economics of terrorism -- Economics of military manpower -- Economics of private military companies -- Economics, historiography, and military history -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- Index.