This book was written for all those interested in or concerned with the history of war. It is not a comprehensive summary, nor does it advance a single explanatory thesis about the nature, history, or future of war. It instead presents selected examples, drawn from around the world and across many millennia, of how humans have warred with each other. More specifically, it examines how humans have innovated at conflict and how they have dealt with each other's innovations. War is a lethal competition, but it is also a complex activity at which humans have competed at doing 'better' than their enemies. Presented with the task of examining war on a global scale over millennia one must pick and choose what to write about. I have chosen to examine the process and consequences of innovation. -- From the introduction.

Includes index.

The origins of war and of the state : to 2500 BCE -- Carts, chariots, catastrophe, and cavalry : 3500-700 BCE -- Men in lines with spears : 900-300 BCE -- Discipline and frontiers in the agricultural empires : Rome and China 300 BCE - 400 CE -- The horsemen of Europe and the Steppe : 400-1450 CE -- War under oars : 700 BCE - 1600 CE -- Adapting to gunpowder (or not) : 1300-1650 CE -- Institutionalization, bureaucratization, and professionalization : China, Japan, and Europe, 1650-1815 -- The age of steam and the industrial empires : 1815-1905 -- Men against fire : 1861-1917 -- Wars of maneuver : 1918-2003 -- The lure of strategic air power, the nuclear paradox, and the revolution in military affairs? 1915-2003 -- Bringing down the state : guerrillas, insurgents, terrorism, and counterinsurgency, 1930-2014.