In this addition to the bestselling'shortest history'series,acclaimed historian and military expert Gwynne Dyer tells the story of war from its prehistoric - perhaps pre-human - origins up to the present age of algorithms and atom bombs.
Dyer chronicles the spread of warfare in the world's first cities; the seemingly inexorable rise of inequality and tyranny as human societies expand; the millennium-long'classical age'of combat ended by the firearm and the carnage of the Thirty Years'War; the brief ensuing interlude of'limited war'before the popular revolutions of the 18th century ushered in an era of total war - itself abruptly halted by Hiroshima. The final chapters deal with the precarious equilibrium of the past 75 years - the longest period of peace between major powers in modern history - and with the looming threats posed by nuclear proliferation,superpower rivalry and climate change.
Publisher: Old Street PublishingISBN: 9781913083236Dimensions: 198 x 129 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
'From the first armies to clashes of drones and "dirty bombs",this is eye-opening,big-picture stuff'- BBC History Magazine
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