The Evolution of War From a Military View

The phenomenon of war is present throughout the long history of human civilizations, and the archeological record suggests human societies have organized and evolved according to their capacities of making war, among many other influences. In other words, war in its various forms has transcended times and spaces from the ancient to the present, leaving very few organized groups of humans untouched by armed conflicts. The recent book by Jeremy Black, A Short History of War, offers an overview of the fascinating evolution of war from a military perspective. Black, a well-known scholar in the field of war history and former professor at the University of Exeter, offers here a historical perspective on war and warfare over a long timeline to understand the nature of this social phenomenon and its global evolution from what he calls the “oldest evidence of war” until today.[1]