The Cambridge History of Warfare

By: Geoffrey Parker

Narrated by: Andrew Cullum

The new edition of The Cambridge History of Warfare, written and updated by a team of eight distinguished military historians, examines how war was waged by Western powers across a sweeping timeframe beginning with classical Greece and Rome, moving through the Middle Ages and the early modern period, down to the wars of the 21st century in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. The book stresses five essential aspects of the Western way of war: a combination of technology, discipline, and an aggressive military tradition with an extraordinary capacity to respond rapidly to challenges and to use capital rather than manpower to win. Although the focus remains on the West, and on the role of violence in its rise, each chapter also examines the military effectiveness of its adversaries and the regions in which the West's military edge has been - and continues to be - challenged.

©2020 Geoffrey Parker (P)2021 Upfront Books

The Evolution of Pain

The human cost of war between Ukraine and Russia seems like the wars of the past where waves of soldiers are sent into the fire, without regard of the consequences, despite the technology available.

It is a history book. Not a story. Hard to focus

struggle to finish. gave up. just could not keep me entertained. Hard to stay focused

Excellent audible, excellent idea!

Glad to see an audible of this book so quickly created. I hope this approach is adopted for other national defense classics.

Recommended as Retrospective

Andrew Cullum is, of course, delightful to listen to as a narrator. I would listen again, simply to hear him read it.

The title is slightly lacking: this is a Cambridge history of Western warfare. Some reflections on "non-Western" warfare are discussed, but only in juxtaposition as a comparator. This does not detract from the content, necessarily; however, I did frequently wonder--through all the description of what made the Western mode of warfare so successful, on the whole--what, specifically made the non-Western modes unsuccessful. It follows that it was a deficiency in one or more of the five tenets that Geoffrey Parker lays down initially as being characteristic of the Western way, but specific insight into which one(s) and in what way, and what influenced those deficiencies for each example would have been truly valuable.

On that note: Geoffrey Parker does an excellent job establishing those five tenets, and discussing them. I found his essays, including the introduction and epilogue, to be some of the most enlightening and enjoyable. Many of the retrospective essays on the conduct of war prior to the Modern period were incredibly insightful, and tied-in the tenets well, if not always explicitly. The discussion on more recent conflicts, however, beginning with the Great War, devolved into more summary than analysis. They were succinct and comprehensive summaries, true, and I still learned a great deal (especially in World War I, Korea, and the Vietnam War, and especially with regard to the geopolitical issues underlying them), but there was no real relation at any time of those successes and failures to adherence to or separation from the five tenets--this is the greatest failing of the book.

It is not a great failing; I would still recommend the book as a first-rate collection of discussions on the history of warfare as practiced in the West. Anyone with a passing interest in the topic and a love for Andrew Cullum's voice should consider this volume on his or her morning and evening commute.

Wonderful overview

This is a great overview and manages balance and do justice to the various periods of history and military science that it covers.