War Made New: Weapons, Warriors, and the Making of the Modern World »

Max Boot is the author of The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power. A senior fellow in national security studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, he lectures at numerous military schools and advises the Department of Defense on transformation issues.

A monumental, groundbreaking work, now in paperback, that shows how technological and strategic revolutions have transformed the battlefield

Combining gripping narrative history with wide-ranging analysis, War Made New focuses on four “revolutions” in military affairs and describes how inventions ranging from gunpowder to GPS-guided air strikes have remade the field of battle—and shaped the rise and fall of empires.

War Made New begins with the Gunpowder Revolution and explains warfare's evolution from ritualistic, drawn-out engagements to much deadlier events, precipitating the rise of the modern nation-state. He next explores the triumph of steel and steam during the Industrial Revolution, showing how it powered the spread of European colonial empires. Moving into the twentieth century and the Second Industrial Revolution, Boot examines three critical clashes of World War II to illustrate how new technology such as the tank, radio, and airplane ushered in terrifying new forms of warfare and the rise of centralized, and even totalitarian, world powers. Finally, Boot focuses on the Gulf War, the invasion of Afghanistan, and the Iraq War—arguing that even as cutting-edge technologies have made America the greatest military power in world history, advanced communications systems have allowed decentralized, “irregular” forces to become an increasingly significant threat.

The New York Times - Josiah Bunting

…unusual, and magisterial, survey of technology and war…Boot approaches this material narratively. He provides illuminating detail on individual battles, while also assessing the fitness and character of the commanders, as well as the culture of their armies and their missions.

List of Maps     xi
Author's Note     xiii
Prologue: The Blitzkrieg of 1494     1
Introduction: Revolutions in Military Affairs     7
The Gunpowder Revolution
The Rise of the Gunpowder Age     19
Sail and Shot: The Spanish Armada, July 31-September 21, 1588     26
Missile and Muscle: Breitenfeld and Lutzen, September 17, 1631-November 16, 1632     50
Flintlocks and Forbearance: Assaye, September 23, 1803     77
The Consequences of the Gunpowder Revolution     103
The First Industrial Revolution
The Rise of the Industrial Age     109
Rifles and Railroads: Koniggratz, July 3, 1866     116
Maxim Guns and Dum Dums: Omdurman, September 2, 1898     146
Steel and Steam: Tsushima, May 27-28, 1905     170
The Consequences of the Industrial Revolution     196
The Second Industrial Revolution
The Rise of the Second Industrial Age     205
Tanks and Terror: France, May 10-June 22, 1940     212
Flattops and Torpedoes: Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941     241
Superfortresses and Firebombs: Tokyo, March 9-10, 1945     268
The Consequences of the Second Industrial Revolution     295
The Information Revolution
The Rise of the Information Age     307
Precision and Professionalism: Kuwait and Iraq, January 17-February 28, 1991     318
Special Forces and Horses: Afghanistan, October 7-December 6, 2001     352
Humvees and IEDs: Iraq, March 20, 2003-May 1, 2005     385
The Consequences of the Information Revolution     419
Revolutions Past, Present, Future
Revolutions to Come     439
Epilogue: Five Hundred Years and Counting: What the Past Teaches About the Future     455
Acknowledgments     475
Bibliography     431
Notes     517
Index     607