Theodore Ropp's landmark book, which B. H. Lidell-Hart called a "brilliant
survey of the history of warfare . . . the best yet produced anywhere," defined the "new military
history" when first published in 1959 and remains valuable as an astute and engaging survey of
warfare from the Renaissance to the Cold War.

Topics that Ropp discusses in this definitive survey of the social, political, military,
and technological aspects of modern warfare range from the new techniques of military
organization that emerged in Renaissance Europe and the life of the common soldier in the eighteenth to the Anglo-American military tradition and in-depth treatments of both the First and Second World Wars. For students of military history and general readers interested in the way that warfare has shaped and been shaped by history, the return into print of this engaging study of the Western way of war over the last six centuries is cause for celebration.