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Rating: 
Summary: Very quick read.
Review: A very good, very quick military history overview - hits all the main points without belaboring any, gives the reader a good list of authors to look at after finishing Howard.
Rating:
Summary: Easy, fun to read, fairly basic.....
Review: Regarding this book, I'd go opposite of the last reviewer. I'm not certain that any more than a prefunctory grasp of European history is necessary to make this book worthwhile. It is a small tome (165 pp); it provides a clear and simple diagram of the ways that war has changed as society has changed, and how war itself has changed society. Howard provides the clear and erudite prose that befits a man who will probably be remembered as one of the class military historians of the last century. I recommend this book as an introduction to military tactics and history; with it, Earle or Paret's 'Makers of Modern Strategy' and John Keegan's 'A History of War' at least an outline of questions to investigate will start to form.....
Rating:
Summary: Worthwhile, but not as interesting as it should be.
Review: This is a short treatise, based on a series of lectures. Its objective is to identify the interactions between economic, social and political structures, technology, the objectives of warfare, and the ways war are thought. It covers European warfare from the middle ages through World War II. The book is replete with insights and interesting generalizations. Yet, for a short book, I still found myself getting bogged down in details of 16th and 17th century political history: perhaps had I a better background I would have enjoyed the politics as kind of a quick review, but I think Howard emphasizes political details too much in several of his chapters, while not focusing sufficiently on tactics and technology. As it happened, immediately prior to reading Howard, I had read about 40 pages of Fighting Techniques of the Ancient World: Equipment, Combat Skills and Tactics by Simon Anglim et al and found this terrific, almost indispensable background (I would not recommend the rest of that book so highly).
Rating:
Summary: Worthwhile, but not as interesting as it should be.
Review: This is a short treatise, based on a series of lectures. Its objective is to identify the interactions between economic, social and political structures, technology, the objectives of warfare, and the ways war are thought. It covers European warfare from the middle ages through World War II. The book is replete with insights and interesting generalizations. Yet, for a short book, I still found myself getting bogged down in details of 16th and 17th century political history: perhaps had I a better background I would have enjoyed the politics as kind of a quick review, but I think Howard emphasizes political details too much in several of his chapters, while not focusing sufficiently on tactics and technology. As it happened, immediately prior to reading Howard, I had read about 40 pages of Fighting Techniques of the Ancient World: Equipment, Combat Skills and Tactics by Simon Anglim et al and found this terrific, almost indispensable background (I would not recommend the rest of that book so highly).
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