Wars of Empire (Cassell History of Warfare) [Hardcover]

Douglas Porch (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2000 | Series: Cassell History of Warfare

Part of John Keegan's prestigious History of Warfare series. A fascinating look at the realities of imperialism and the wars it spawned. Fully illustrated throughout and incorporating computer generated cartography that brings the battlefields to life.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the European domination of immense portions of Asia and Africa dramatically accelerated. To many proponents of imperial expansion, the creation of these vast colonial empires was the inevitable result of technologically, morally, and perhaps even racially superior cultures asserting themselves over "backward" peoples, for the benefit of both master and mastered. Porch, a history professor and specialist in military history, discounts ideas of inherent superiority, and he illustrates that European triumphalism was not inevitable. Despite their obvious technological inferiority, many African and Asian peoples showed great capacity for innovation and adaptability in resisting conquest. This is an exciting saga, written by a gifted writer with the capacity to explain military tactics and strategies in laypersons' terms. It is filled with a fascinating array of characters who demonstrate mobility, knavery, and vanity while acting upon a broad stage. The lush illustrations highlight but do not detract from the text. This outstanding book will delight both scholars and well-informed general readers who appreciate a great story well told. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Professor Douglas Porch is Professor of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Cassell; First Edition edition (December 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0304352713
• ISBN-13: 978-0304352715
• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,327,172 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A tough task, but well done, October 4, 2001

By 

Julian Wan "wanchob" (Ann Arbor, MI USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Wars of Empire (Cassell History of Warfare) (Hardcover)

Wars of Empire by Douglas Porch is part of the Cassell History of Warfare series edited by John Keegan. The title actually is a bit of a misnomer. It refers to the usage prevalent in Eurpoe around 1700-1900. By Empire, it means an imperial colonial system, and so examines predominately the European experience, although the American experience in the Phillipines, and Japanese efforts are also discussed. The series has been notable in its flexible approach. Rather than restricting its authors to a specific struggle or time period, the series has allowed some topics to span larger ranges of time and space. (examples: Age of the Fighting Sail, War in the Air: 1914-1945) This method of looking at the common points along a continuum helps to formulate a better understanding of seemingly disparate topics.

Major strengths: briefly summarizes the major imperial wars which created the vast colonial empires of the European powers between 1700-1900. It highlights their successes and failures. It traces the importance of technology (notably machine guns, naval power, telegraph) and how these actions were part of a greater political/economic plan. Of interest to current readers is the history of how areas were "pacified", and why empires have failed. The last chapter "Imperial Twilight?" examines why the great colonial empires fell apart after WWII.
Major weaknesses: it requires the reader to have some notion of the political climate of the different eras, and be able to sense the vast scales involved.

So, in conclusion, a well done effort on a complex topic. Not just a history of little known colonial actions.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A challenging task handled with grace, May 13, 2007

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Sight Reader "sight_reader" (Fort Collins, CO United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Wars of Empire (Smithsonian History of Warfare) (Paperback)

Porch is given a seemingly hopeless task: discuss a history that not only spans CENTURIES of warfare, but also an impossible variety of cultures and political contexts. Unlike other authors in this Smithsonian series, Porch approaches this seemingly impossible task with both energy and vision.

Porch must have quickly recognized that a strictly chronological approach would not have been at all insightful. There were simply too many Western powers trying to colonize vastly unrelated parts of the globe at the same time... any chronological approach to this topic in such a small book was doomed to becoming a simple list of battles and dates with little comment.

Instead, Porch chooses as his unifying structure the various strategies applied by Imperialists and their indigenous enemies. Porch identifies commonalities in both political and military strategies used in vastly different contexts, and organizes his discussion into these strategic lessons. The result is that battles in the 1700's may be mentioned in the same sentence as battles in the 21th century, provided that they present antagonists with comparable dilemmas. The advantage to this approach is that Porch is free to add profound insight without exploding the book to re-teach the lesson each time. The disadvantage, of course, is that all these tongue twisting names and dates seem to pop out of nowhere in the context of a lesson and can become hopelessly confusing for a first time reader.

Obviously, this approach makes it difficult to assemble any chronological narrative after just one reading, but Porch assumes that you will be reading this MORE than once. Porch ensures that there is sufficient information to allow a careful reader to go back and reconstruct a Colonial narrative from any viewpoint they choose. The maps and indicies in this book are absolutely vital, as they provide a very important launching point for a reader to go back and adopt a particular perspective from which to re-experience this book with a continent, imperial power, or century in mind.

Finally, the emphasis on "lessons learned" shows uncomfortable relevance to the American experience in Iraq. There is no direct mention of this occupation, so it is possible that the book was written before the invasion, but it is abundantly clear that the lessons learned painfully by imperial powers of centuries past were utterly disregarded by the Americans.

1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent collection about military history, January 20, 2007

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Wagner De A. Moraes "Axt" (Sao Paulo, Brazil) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Wars of Empire (Smithsonian History of Warfare) (Paperback)

This title is for lovers of good reading and for those who enjoy military hystory.