Jeremy Black has done it again. In clear, concise, yet comprehensive terms, he has brought the history of the soldiers' wars to us in one fine volume. This is essential reading for all who seek to follow the evolution of ground warfare as seen from the shifting perspectives of the wars into which the soldier has been thrust. Wars change at a dizzying rate, but once more Black helps us to focus on the immutable without fixation. This is a true joy to read, and his attention to the way the regional focus of warfare since the mid-nineteenth century seems to have again returned to Asia causes us all to look again at neatly fitted timelines and geographic frames.
— Theodore F. Cook, William Paterson University of New Jersey
Land conflict is warmaking’s most protean, complex, and diverse form. The challenge of presenting a comprehensive analysis is correspondingly formidable, and Jeremy Black is fully up to the task. With the mid-nineteenth century as his starting point, he synergizes operational, doctrinal, and cultural perspectives on ground combat in a global context, with the comprehensive scholarship and perceptive sophistication characteristic of his work. This is Black at his best!
— Dennis Showalter, Colorado College
In this crisp, incisive book, Jeremy Black illuminates the key challenge of warfare since the Charge of the Light Brigade. No playbook will serve. Militaries great and small that prepare exclusively for nuclear or conventional war will be undone by ‘wars among the people’ and vice versa. There is an intractability to warfare in every age, which, Black reveals, can only be addressed by supple techniques and doctrine and a solid grasp of history.
— Geoffrey Wawro, University of North Texas