History of War

Geoffrey Parker

The Spanish publisher Akal has republished the work History of War, directed by the eminent British historian and Hispanist Geoffrey Parker, who on this occasion leads a team made up of a cast of great historians.

It is, without a doubt, a classic book despite the fact that the original edition dates back to 2005, although it is also controversial, since many have accused Parker and this work of being Eurocentric. However, the author is honest and from the first pages, already in the introduction, he tells us about the "Western practice of war" which, whether we like it or not, is the one that has been imposed throughout the World in the last centuries.

Be that as it may, the main virtue of this book is to offer a complex explanation of the evolution of the war from its beginnings to the present. Unlike other authors, who focus on the technological part or on the tactical or doctrinal changes, even sociological, the work that Parker directs tries to integrate them all, giving the reader a correct idea of ​​the numerous factors that have influenced the way of war and the use of military force as a political tool.

This is clearly seen on numerous occasions, the case of the Napoleonic Wars serves as an example. In this case, far from seeking simplistic explanations for the success - and subsequent fall - of the French emperor, he tells us about; 1) the previous advances that Napoleon knew how to take advantage of; 2) his inability to set affordable strategic objectives, as Frederick the Great did; 3) tactical and organic changes; 4) the ability to adapt on the part of his multiple rivals; 5) the Russian genius in changing time for space or; 6) of the economic power accumulated by England during the First Industrial Revolution and which allowed subsidies to be granted to its allies, thus encouraging them to forge new coalitions.

These types of explanations are repeated over and over again throughout this work, which in no case is easy. Thus, if in many cases various authors attribute the Prussian victory over Napoleon III's France to the superior mobilization capacity thanks to the railways, or to the existence of a very competent General Staff, or even to the advantage in artillery, in This book cites these and other factors, of course. However, none of the multiple partial explanations prevent us from remaining with the idea that the result was the sum of these factors and another, fundamental one, that tends to fall into oblivion: the genius of Chancellor Bismark in knowing how to set reasonable goals (objectives). limited), unlike what we have seen previously with Napoléon.

Here is the greatness of History of War, a book that in less than 450 pages condenses the evolution of war history in a didactic and accessible way for any reader and that, in addition, offers us a solid explanation of why, among all the ways of waging war that Humanity has known, the Western one is the one that has ended up prevailing.