Overview

Waging War: Conflict, Culture, and Innovation in World History provides a wide-ranging examination of war in human history, from the beginning of the species until the current rise of the so-called Islamic State. Although it covers many societies throughout time, the book does not attempt to tell all stories from all places, nor does it try to narrate ""important"" conflicts. Instead, author Wayne E. Lee describes the emergence of military innovations and systems, examining how they were created and then how they moved or affected other societies. These innovations are central to most historical narratives, including the development of social complexity, the rise of the state, the role of the steppe horseman, the spread of gunpowder, the rise of the west, the bureaucratization of military institutions, the industrial revolution and the rise of firepower, strategic bombing and nuclear weapons, and the creation of ""people's war.""

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9780199797455

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Reviews

It takes the sharp interdisciplinary mind of Wayne E. Lee to bring together so much material over such a broad span of history and make it not only intelligible but fresh and exciting to read. He has given us a truly global history of war that will serve as one of the standards in the field for years to come. --Michael S. Neiberg, author of Dance of the Furies: Europe and the Outbreak of World War I Wayne E. Lee's incisive overview of innovation in warfare convincingly shows the importance of both technology and technique in military competition. He skillfully embeds military matters in their larger social, political, and economic contexts to provide one of the very few world histories of warfare. --J.R. McNeill, Georgetown University Waging War ranks as the most important survey of humankind's warrior past in decades. This accessible and yet profound work is a superb act of vision and of intellectual courage. --John Lynn, University of Illinois Waging War is a far-reaching study of war that brilliantly probes the theme of innovation. This important work deserves wide attention. --Jeremy Black, author of A Century of Conflict: War, 1914-2014

It takes the sharp interdisciplinary mind of Wayne E. Lee to bring together so much material over such a broad span of history and make it not only intelligible but fresh and exciting to read. He has given us a truly global history of war that will serve as one of the standards in the field for years to come. --Michael S. Neiberg, author of Dance of the Furies: Europe and the Outbreak of World War I Wayne E. Lee's incisive overview of innovation in warfare convincingly shows the importance of both technology and technique in military competition. He skillfully embeds military matters in their larger social, political, and economic contexts to provide one of the very few world histories of warfare. --J.R. McNeill, Georgetown University Waging War ranks as the most important survey of humankind's warrior past in decades. This accessible and yet profound work is a superb act of vision and of intellectual courage. --John Lynn, University of Illinois Waging War is a far-reaching study of war that brilliantly probes the theme of innovation. This important work deserves wide attention. --Jeremy Black, author of A Century of Conflict: War, 1914-2014 It takes the sharp interdisciplinary mind of Wayne E. Lee to bring together so much material over such a broad span of history and make it not only intelligible but fresh and exciting to read. He has given us a truly global history of war that will serve as one of the standards in the field for years to come. --Michael S. Neiberg, author of Dance of the Furies: Europe and the Outbreak of World War I Wayne E. Lee's incisive overview of innovation in warfare convincingly shows the importance of both technology and technique in military competition. He skillfully embeds military matters in their larger social, political, and economic contexts to provide one of the very few world histories of warfare. --J.R. McNeill, Georgetown University Waging War ranks as the most important survey of humankind's warrior past in decades. This accessible and yet profound work is a superb act of vision and of intellectual courage. --John Lynn, University of Illinois Waging War is a far-reaching study of war that brilliantly probes the theme of innovation. This important work deserves wide attention. --Jeremy Black, author of A Century of Conflict: War, 1914-2014

It takes the sharp interdisciplinary mind of Wayne E. Lee to bring together so much material over such a broad span of history and make it not only intelligible but fresh and exciting to read. He has given us a truly global history of war that will serve as one of the standards in the field for years to come. --Michael S. Neiberg, author of Dance of the Furies: Europe and the Outbreak of World War I Wayne E. Lee's incisive overview of innovation in warfare convincingly shows the importance of both technology and technique in military competition. He skillfully embeds military matters in their larger social, political, and economic contexts to provide one of the very few world histories of warfare. --J.R. McNeill, Georgetown University Waging War ranks as the most important survey of humankind's warrior past in decades. This accessible and yet profound work is a superb act of vision and of intellectual courage. --John Lynn, University of Illinois Waging War is a far-reaching study of war that brilliantly probes the theme of innovation. This important work deserves wide attention. --Jeremy Black, author of A Century of Conflict: War, 1914-2014

Author Information

Wayne E. Lee is Professor of History at the University of North Carolina and Chair of the Curriculum in Peace, War, and Defense. He is the author of Barbarians and Brothers: Anglo-American Warfare, 1500-1865 (OUP, 2011) and Crowds and Soldiers in Revolutionary North Carolina: The Culture of Violence in Riot and War (2001).

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