The Cambridge Illustrated History of Warfare

Rating:
Summary: Good Jumping Off Point
Review: As a student I found this book to be helpful and articulate. It has a lot of ground to cover--Ancient Greece to the present day--and does a remarkable job of conveying what happened and why. Though it is occasionally dry, I found myself engaged throughout. My only complaint is that it maybe could have benefited from being a bit longer. Brevity is certainly a virtue, but when your topic is as large as this one, I think a longer book is justified. It's definately nice to have around as a reference book too.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent introductory overview of military history
Review: Geoffrey Parker has assembled some of the best working military historians for this volume, so that each chapter is up-to-date, well written, and reliable. Unlike many illustrated histories, this one gives at least some endnote references, and includes excellent short bibliographies for each chapter. The illustrations are also outstanding. About as good a history of warfare as could be produced within its word limits. --Professor Clifford J. Rogers

Rating:
Summary: Amazing!
Review: The book accomplishes its goal amazingly well with clear graphics, lucid text, and wonderful accuracy . Easily the best in its field, the book gives you a profound understanding and knowledge of the european wars. The chapters are well written and up-to-date. The bibliographies are clearly stated to give the reader further information on a given topic. This is history of war at its finest.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing!
Review: The book accomplishes its goal amazingly well with clear graphics, lucid text, and wonderful accuracy . Easily the best in its field, the book gives you a profound understanding and knowledge of the european wars. The chapters are well written and up-to-date. The bibliographies are clearly stated to give the reader further information on a given topic. This is history of war at its finest.

Rating:
Summary: Good Overview of Warfare
Review: This book provides a good first glance at the various stages of warfare that have come and gone throughout human history, from Greek Hoplites to guerilla warfare. The illustrations in this book are very beautiful and informative, and a number of insets provide interesting factoids.

This book is ideally suited for those wanting a good overview of the history of warfare. Be forewarned, though, that this book should not be used as a reference except for general facts in the history of warfare. Battle formations, major skirmishes and important people make up the majority of the content. Smaller details are not included, for the most part.

Overall, this is a great book to own. I bought it for a college course a few years back and kept it afterwards. This is a good starting-off point for any interested in military history.