The Cambridge History of Warfare edited by ... - Australian Army

Book Review
The Cambridge History of Warfare, edited by Geoffrey Parker,
New York, Cambridge University Press, 2005, 432pp.
Reviewed by Anthony Robinson, FDI Associate, Canberra
With every major conflict, there is a temporary period when titles that
focus on war and conflict move from the back of the bookstore to
the front. Many of these works, while valuable by themselves, often
look at one conflict and sometimes one battle without considering the evolution of
warfare. Placing individual conflicts in the context of millennia of human competition,
such as The Cambridge History or Warfare, provides for a richer understanding
of contemporary, and perhaps future, conflicts.
The Cambridge History or Warfare is written in an accessible style and fills the
void between earnest, academic theoretical works and superficial approaches that
do not satisfy the more discerning student of history. It provides a good reference
source for history students, from undergraduate through to those undertaking
postgraduate studies. In addition, casual readers,
seeking a good read and or an A-to-Z about warfare,
strategy and history, will find the book enjoyable and
a useful addition to any reference library.
… the ‘Western way
The editor and contributing author, Geoffrey
of war’ rests upon
Parker, is a Professor of History at the Ohio State
five foundations …
University and has written or edited more than thirty
books. His latest work is the result of collaboration
with six other contributors. These contributors include
Williamson Murray and the distinguished and much published US scholar Victor
Davis Hanson, another aficionado of the Western way of war. The result has been
carefully collated to produce the answer to the question: how did the ‘Western way
of war’ become so dominant? The editor puts forward the proposition that the
‘Western way of war’ rests upon five foundations: technology, discipline, an aggressive
military tradition, an extraordinary capacity to respond rapidly to challenges,
Australian Army Journal Volume III, Number 3 page 241

Book Review Anthony Robinson
and the use of capital rather than manpower to achieve victory. The combination of
these factors has ensured Western predominance over the ages. Although the work
takes an unashamedly Eurocentric view of warfare, it acknowledges the military
effectiveness of adversaries.
In the introduction of the book, the editor makes the claim that ‘Religious and
ideological constraints have seldom interfered with either the discussion or the
conduct of war in the West’. St Augustine may disagree. ‘Who pays and why’ is as
important in the western way of war as ‘Who fights and why’. It is the ability to
organise long-term credit, and therefore the existence of a secure and sophisticated
capital market, to fund public borrowing in wartime which represented a crucial
‘secret weapon’ of the West. 1
The work covers five eras, ‘the age of massed infantry’ from 600 BCE to 300 AD,
‘the age of fortifications’ from 300 AD to 1500 AD, ‘the age of guns and sails’ from
1500 to 1815, and the last section covers ‘the age of mechanised warfare’, from 1815
to 2004. The second chapter, titled ‘From Phalanx to Legion’, superbly written by
Victor Davis Hanson, provides a fascinating dissertation on the ‘Revolution in
Military Affairs (RMA)’ brought about by Rome. This RMA radically changed the
structure and subsequent lethality of 2nd-century BCE warfare. Hanson describes
this change as the: ‘… Roman way of war thus
stood in stark contrast to the chaos of the Hellenic
military style … mobility and fluidity, not naked
force, and the short sword, not the pike, gave new-
… the work is
found lethality to Roman infantry.’ 2
balanced and presents
However, the Roman way of war, as with all
an objective view of
other ways, had its own weaknesses. Hanson
describes how two specific and very different
warfare and strategy
battlefield environments, the narrow flat terrain
throughout the ages.
found at Cannae in 216 BCE and the open treeless
plains of Carrhae, resulted in the annihilation of
Roman fighting forces.
Overall, the work is balanced and presents an objective view of warfare and
strategy throughout the ages. As such, the reviewer was perplexed to read the editor’s
comparison of US President George W. Bush and Adolph Hitler in the epilogue:
In the 1930s only one European leader really wanted war: Adolph Hitler; in the first years
of the twenty-first century, only one world leader really wanted war with Iraq: George W.
Bush. In both cases, the war that most of the world desperately opposed broke out. 3
page 242 Volume III, Number 3 Australian Army Journal

The Cambridge History of Warfare
Most historians and commentators agree that history has not yet decided on the
wisdom or otherwise of US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq. The editor’s observation is a
little premature to be incorporated into works of history, published less than three
years after the event, with the outcome still in doubt.
In his concluding chapter, Parker summarises his formula for the future of the
western way of warfare as:
The future of the western way of war, and son of the western way of life and the
advantageous economic system that sustains it, ultimately depends on three things: a
sustained ability to mange international crises and prevent them from turning into armed
conflicts, the outcomes of which is always unpredictable; the continued willingness to pay
(in both human and material terms) for defence against perils that are not immediately
apparent; and the maintenance of each state’s political control over its armed forces … 4
In conclusion, the book is an admirable and informative read. It is fully referenced
and has an excellent index and notes section. Several unfortunate typographical
errors, including one on the first page, fail to disguise the significant effort put into
producing this work of history.
Endnotes
1 Geoffrey Parker (ed.), The Cambridge History or Warfare, Cambridge University
Press, 2005; p. 9.
2 Parker, p. 41.
3 Ibid, p. 429.
4 Ibid, p. 428.
Australian Army Journal Volume III, Number 3 page 243