A work of massive sweep... in which the resources of anthropology,
ethnology, psychology, and history are drawn on in comprehensive but succinct
synthesis to create what is perhaps the most remarkable study of warfare that has
yet been written.New York Times Book Review

Starting with the premise that all civilizations owe their origins to warmaking, Keegan
probes the meanings, motivations and methods underlying war in different societies
over the course of more than two thousand years. Following the progress of human
aggression in its full historical sweepfrom the strangely ritualistic combat of Stone
Age peoples to the warfare of mass destruction in the present agehis illuminating
and lively narrative gives us all the worlds great warrior cultures, including the Zulus,
the samurai, and the horse peoples of the steppe, as well as the famed warmakers of
the West. He shows why honor has always been accorded to the soldierly virtues,
whatever the cultural context, and how war has maintained its singular hold on the
imagination, reaching into the most secret places of the human heart, places where
self dissolves rational purpose, where pride reigns, where emotion is paramount, where
instinct it king.

John Keegan is the defense editor of the Daily Telegraph (London) and Britain's foremost military historian. He is the author of many best-selling books, including The First World War, Intelligence in War, and The Battle for History. He lives in Wiltshire, England.

Frederick Davidson is a recipient of the Golden Voices Award and numerous Earphones Awards. After performing for years in many BBC radio plays, he came to America in 1976. He has narrated more than eight hundred audiobooks.