War in European History

First published over thirty years ago, War in European History is a brilliantly written survey of the changing ways that war has been waged in Europe, from the Norse invasions to the present day. Far more than a simple military history, the book serves as a succinct and enlightening overview of the development of European society as a whole over the last millennium. From the Norsemen and the world of the medieval knights, through to the industrialized mass warfare of the twentieth century, Michael Howard illuminates the way in which warfare has shaped the history of the Continent, its effect on social and political institutions, and the ways in which technological and social change have in turn shaped the way in which wars are fought. This new edition includes a fully updated further reading and a new final chapter bringing the story into the twenty-first century, including the invasion of Iraq and the so-called "War against Terror."

Sir Michael Howard is Emeritus Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford. His publications include The Franco-Prussian War (1961), which won the Duff Cooper Memorial Prize, Grand Strategy, which was volume 4 in the United Kingdom History of the Second World War (1971) (Wolfson Foundation History Award, 1972), The Lessons of History (1991), and many others. He has held the Chair of War Studies at King's College, London, the Chichele Chair of War and the Regius Chair of Modern History at Oxford, and the Robert A. Lovatt Chair of Military and Naval History at Yale.