Customer Reviews

War in European History

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the first first book I have come across that really delves into the political and economic aspects of military history while not losing a beat in discussing the tactics. Howard does a great job of leading one subject into another, but if you do not have some background in European History, this is not the book to start with. Howard's thematic tool is combatants, such as "War of the Knights," "War of the Mercenaries," etc. While this is effective in converying how one group becomes more important than the previous, he does not really give you a full flavor for why it is changing, concentrating more on weaponry and politics. Overall: read it if you haven't, but make sure you have some background in European history first.

A friend of mine recommended this book to me. At the time it was required reading at West Point and it very well may still be. No other book displays the history of war in Europe in such a concise and complete way. It also shows how the nations of Europe developed and what gave them thier defining characteristics. Anyone with an interest in Western history or military history should own a copy of this book.

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.

In "War in European History", distinguished British military historian Michael Howard provides a concise and fascinating survey of European conflict from roughly the Fall of Rome to the end of the Second World War. This book was first published in 1976 and has been provided with a new afterword for the 2009 edition.

In brisk, well-written chapters, Howard explores the contributions to European warfare of the Knights, the Mercenaries, the Merchants, the Professionals, the Revolution, the Nations, and the Technologists. Along the way, he examines the ways in which political movements, growing economic wealth, more effective governments, and more lethal technology interacted to change the nature of European wars.

In a sense, Howard's book has two endings. In the first, the devastation of the world wars and the rise of the Soviet Union and United States by 1945 seemingly ended the role of Europe as the military and political center of the global system. After 1945, the lethality of nuclear weapons seemed to make another major European war all but unthinkable. However, in his updated epilogue, Howard acknowledges that conflict within the global system, of which Europe is a part, will almost inevitably require European participation in future wars.

At a brief 144 pages, "War in European History" can be no more than a survey, even if brillantly written. Details have inevitably been slighted in favor of larger trends. Howard is admittedly a specialist in European military history; others may reasonably disagree with, for example, his estimate of the adaptibility of the American military. However, as an introduction to a major theme of military history, "War in European History" is hard to beat and very highly recommended.

This book was perfectly phenomenal. In 144 pages, Howard packed in so much, without making it appear over-packed. 1,000 years of warfare, with all the attendant strategies, tactics, and developments, are presented in a readable and thorough fashion, without coming across as simplistic or factoid laden. Howard finished the book in 2001 (I'm thinking in the pre-9/11 2001) and in the last page he nailed some of the major issues the world would be dealing with in the early stages of the 21st century. First, he properly casts doubt on the Revolution in Military Affairs approach (doubt, mind you, and not a complete discard); second, he recognizes the likely rise of terrorism; and third, he points out that troops will be taking on far more than conventional battle missions, which will come to include peacekeeping, counterinsurgency warfare, and a host of other previously difficult to imagine military missions.

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.....

Sir Michael Howard has produced an accessible and enlightening overview of the development of war and war fighting in Early Modern European history to today. Howard's review begins briefly at the fall of the Roman Empire before moving quickly to the Renaissance and the beginnings of development of systematic war fighting. Howard's focus for the next seven hundred years or so is the role of central government and the professionalization of armies, conscription (or lack thereof), specialization, and the interaction of economics and the decision of states to go to war.

His strongest chapters are on the role politics and ideology from the end of the 18th century and the intensity of fighting and killing. This is an excellent, short overview of an incredibly complicated subject matter. I recommend this book as a great place for those interested in the subject to start.

Sir Michael Howard is one of the leading military historians in the world today. His work is outstanding because he sets war in its various contexts -- political, social, geographic, technological, ideological, and so forth. He has written a series of short, distilled works of historical synthesis, and this is one of his best. The current edition includes an extensive new foreword and epilogue. Anyone interested in military history broadly conceived should read this book.

This book is a wonderful overview (much like a grand essay), with insight in abundance. It is for works like this that the Kindle highlight button has great utility. It is a book to be savored, read again, and ruminated on. The "Further Reading" is a trove.

I've always doubted the wisdom of WWII's Casablanca edict: "unconditional surrender", and, after this reading experience, even more so. Perhaps, we are all knights errant.

Aren't we readers lucky that Michael Howard knows his way around a library?

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).