This is a fast-paced survey of the history of war in the Eurasian world from classical Greece to the French Revolution. Defining the period as the era of pre-industrial warfare, Frederic Baumgartner describes the broad differences, as well as the similarities, in the armies through those 2,000 years. He suggests that the Greek hoplite, the Roman legionary, the nomadic horse archer, the medieval knight, the Swiss pikeman, the early musketeer, and other military types have more in common with each other than with the soldier of the twentieth century. Although he concentrates on the wars and military systems of western Europe, Baumgartner devotes considerable attention to those societies that had a significant impact on European warfare. The Byzantine Empire, the Arabs, the Central Asian nomads, and the Ottoman Turks are examined as are the countries of eastern Europe. Naval history is well integrated into the work with special attention given to galley warfare in the Mediterranean between Christendom and Islam. Fortification and siegecraft are also discussed extensively.

Baumgartner has produced a significant original synthesis of scholarship on military history. It is not a series of biographies of great commanders or studies of the tactics of great battles, although a number of battles are examined in some detail to illustrate the tactics, fighting style, or weapons system typical of a particular era. Baumgartner is more concerned with illuminating the close relationship between social and economic change and military change throughout history. This work will be useful as a textbook for a college-level course in military history or as supplemental reading for classes in Western civilization.