The Cambridge History of Strategy: Volume 1, From Antiquity to the American War of Independence: (The Cambridge History of Strategy)

Volume I of The Cambridge History of Strategy offers a history of the practice of strategy from the beginning of recorded history, to the late eighteenth century, from all parts of the world. Drawing on material evidence covering two and a half millennia, an international team of leading scholars in each subject examines how strategy was formulated and applied and with what tools, from ancient Greece and China to the Ottoman and Mughal Empires and the American Revolutionary War. They explore key themes from decision-makers and strategy-making processes, causes of wars and war aims and tools of strategy in war and peace, to configurations of armed forces and distinctive and shared ways of war across civilisations and periods. A comparative conclusion examines how the linking of political goals with military means took place in different parts of the world over the course of history, asking whether strategic practice has universal features.

Table of Contents:
Introduction to Volume I: The practice of strategy Isabelle Duyvesteyn and Beatrice Heuser; 1. China to AD 180 Peter Lorge; 2. Teispid and Achaemenid Persia (c. 550–330 BC) John O. Hyland; 3. Ancient Greece: Strategy of the city states (500–300 BC) Roel Konijnendijk; 4. Philip II, Alexander III and the Macedonian Empire Andrew Fear; 5. Ancient Rome: Monarchy and Republic (753–27 BC) Louis Rawlings; 6. China AD 180–1127 David A. Graff; 7. Ancient Rome: principate and dominate (27 BC–AD 630) Michael Whitby; 8. The Gupta Empire (AD 400–500) Kaushik Roy; 9. The Sassanian Empire's strategies Katarzyna Maksymiuk; 10. The Rashidun, Umayyad (661–750) and Abbasid (750–1258) Caliphates Mehdi Kurgan Kader; 11. Byzantine strategy (AD 630–1204) Georgios Chatzelis; 12. Strategies in the wars of western Europe, 476–c. 1000 John France; 13. Latin Christendom in the later Middle Ages Sophie Therese Ambler; 14. Chinggis Khan and the Mongol Empire, AD 1206–1368 Timothy May; 15. Hindu and Buddhist polities of premodern/early modern mainland south-east Asia (1100–1800) Tassapa Umavijani; 16. Pre-Columbian and early historic Native American warfare Patricia M. Lambert; 17. Ottoman expansionism 1300–1823 Mesut Uyar; 18. Strategy in the wars of pre-colonial Sub-Saharan Africa John Burton Kegel and Giacomo Macola; 19. Strategies of the Mughal Empire Pratyay Nath; 20. China, 1368–1911 Kenneth M. Swope; 21. Early modern Europe: The Habsburgs and their enemies, 1519–1659 David Parrott; 22. Naval strategies Andri van Vliet; 23. The strategy of Louis XIV Jamel Ostwald; 24. Hohenzollern strategy under Frederick II Adam L. Storring; 25. American warfare in the eighteenth century Stephen Conway; Summary of Volume I Beatrice Heuser and Isabelle Duyvesteyn.

About the Author :
Isabelle Duyvesteyn is Professor of International Studies/Global History at the Institute of History at Leiden University. Between 2012 and 2017 she held the Special Chair in Strategic Studies at the Political Science Institute of Leiden University. Between 2008 and 2020 she was a member of the national Advisory Council on International Affairs assigned to advise the Netherlands government on issues of peace and security, and between 2012 and 2021 she was a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Netherlands Defence Academy. Beatrice Heuser holds the Chair of International Relations at the University of Glasgow, and is seconded to the General Staff College of the Bundeswehr in Hamburg as Section Chief for Strategy. She has worked at NATO Headquarters as a consultant. She has served on academic advisory boards of the Royal United Services Institute, the French Institute of International Affairs (IFRI) and the French government's strategic studies think tank IRSEM. She has previously taught at universities in the UK, Germany and France.

Review :
'An effective and important contribution … useful for students, military and professionals alike …' James W. E. Smith, The Naval Review