Introduction: the western way of war Geoffrey Parker; Part I. The Age of Massed Infantry: 1. Genesis of infantry 600–350 BC Victor Davis Hanson; 2. From phalanx to legion 350–250 BC Victor Davis Hanson; 3. The Roman way of war 250 BC–AD 300 Victor Davis Hanson; Part II. The Age of Stone Fortifications: 4. On Roman ramparts 300–1300 Bernard S. Bachrach; 5. New weapons, new tactics 1300–1500 Christopher Allmand; 6. The gunpowder revolution 1300–1500 Geoffrey Parker; Part III. The Age of Guns and Sails: 7. Ships of the line 1500–1650 Geoffrey Parker; 8. Conquest of the Americas 1500–1650 Patricia Seed; 9. Dynastic war 1494–1660 Geoffrey Parker; 10. States in conflict 1661–1763 John A Lynn; 11. Nations in arms 1763–1815 John A. Lynn; Part IV. The Age of Mechanized Warfare: 12. The industrialization of war 1815–71 Williamson A. Murray; 13. Towards world war 1871–1914 Williamson A. Murray; 14. The west at war 1914–18 Williamson A. Murray; 15. The world in conflict 1919–41 Williamson A. Murray; 16. The world at war 1941–5 Williamson A. Murray; 17. The post-war world Williamson A. Murray; Epilogue: the future of western warfare Geoffrey Parker.

"Here is the story of war as the driving force in the rise of the West from the Greeks to our own day. Written by some of the world's leading experts in military history, this remarkable book combines scholarship with style. Without pulling any punches about the misery of the battlefield, it makes the case for the centrality of warfare in the history of the West and the world. Rarely has so much learning, lucidity, and wisdom been found between two covers." -Barry Strauss, Cornell University, and author of The Battle of Salamis: The Naval Encounter that Saved Greece--and Western Civilization