A Military History of the Western World, Vol. I: From the Earliest Times to the Battle of Lepanto

This review is for all three volumes collectively: I. Earliest times to Lepanto II. Spanish Armada to Waterloo III. American Civil War to the end of WWII Fuller's coverage is comprehensive, hitting all the traditional battles considered for one reason or another turning points of history, from the ancient Egyptians down through WWII. In between the chapters on actual battles, he includes essays that discuss the political, societal and military developments leading up to the next battle. Fuller does inject his opinion into many places. This might put off some readers but I believe it is expected of the honest historian to let his personal views show through. The volumes should be first read through completely, in order to give the military history enthusiast a broad background of knowledge, regardless of their particular area of interest. Then, they can be kept as a reference.

JFC Fuller was an eccentric, opinionated, iconoclastic British soldier and theorist who wrote extensively about warfare between his leaving the British army (basically at the end of the First World War) and his death in 1966. His writing generally fell into two categories: on the one hand he did history, and on the other, military theory. This current book was originally issued as a three volume study, and it is primarily history. It was at the time considered very influential, and it's generally aged well. The current edition, under review, has been edited by British historian John Terraine. Terraine apparently decided to limit the books to European history in an attempt to shorten them and reduce their content to something manageable. I have to say that I think him only partially successful: the two volumes that emerge from the editing process are between them about 1100 pages in length. An edited version of anything should be shorter than that. To weave the text together, Terraine uses a strange technique whereby the text's chapters are hung together with "chronicles" and "editor's notes". The former are shortened versions of Fuller's writings, and the latter are written by Terraine to explain what Fuller said between the various chapters. The whole thing is rather confusing. Fuller is, as I said above, very opinionated. Some of his opinions, especially as he gets closer to the events of the current day, look considerably less intelligent now than they did when they were written. Fuller was politically a conservative. He is rather open in his dislike for Stalin, and equates him with Hitler. I've had this discussion with other people: in my mind, the actual body count of people killed doesn't really matter (they're both mass murderers: you wind up saying one is less evil because he "only" slaughtered X million). Instead, the difference is one of method: Stalin tried to conquer the world by gradually subverting everyone else's government. Hitler was set on invading each country and installing a dictatorship forcefully. The world could, and did, survive Stalin without fighting an all-out war against the USSR. The world couldn't, and didn't, avoid fighting Hitler to the death. That makes Hitler worse, even if his death toll was inferior to Stalin's. Fuller can't see this point of view, and thinks that the end of the war left half of Europe in Stalin's hands. It did, but of course that didn't last, and those countries are now independent, though some of them are not exactly free. Fuller has a sense of moral equivalency throughout this book which is, to say the least, a bit unsettling. Where it's not so bad in describing the Thirty Years War, it's more annoying when he gets to the chapters about Hitler and his crimes. I generally enjoyed this book, but I'm not sure that the editing process was done in a fashion that makes a reasonable book. I would recommend this only for specialists, and those people probably wouldn't object to the three volume

If you want to have a brief understanding of the military history of the western world, this book is the one you needed. Enjoy it! The whole series has three volume. From Earliest Times to W.W.II. Get them all on your bookshelf!

Ginn from Arizona has written a fitting summary for Fuller's book. I would like to add my appreciation for the author's balance of the historical context with a complete account of the tactics, battle plans, decisions, and actions that carried the battles for one side over another. I teach history on the college level, and while most textbooks teach the causes and effects of wars or battles, they sacrifice the details due to consideration of space. In many cases, the details of military conflicts pique students' interest in the event, and aid in remembering the impact of particular clashes or struggles. Yet most military histories overload readers on detail, as if the battle is the whole story. Fuller strikes a wonderful balance between the two purposes, and his book has earned a place of considerable importance on my reference shelf.

War is perhaps the one social aspect that has influenced history more than any other. From the Greeks, to Alexander, to the Roman Empire, entire civilizations have been established or toppled by war. As such, any person who wishes to truly understand human history, and in particular, the history of western civilization, should at least be familiar with the military aspect.Fuller was a general in the British army, and he displays complete mastery of the causes, strategies, and the repercussions of the most important battles in history. This first volume concentrates on ancient warfare up to the naval battle of Lepanto in the 15th century.What makes the reading so fascinating is that Fuller not only summarizes the important battles, but he frames them within their context in how they influenced and changed history. Preceding each major military struggle is a short summary of the conditions which laid the groundwork for the battle. Additionally, Fuller concludes each chapter with a short analysis of the historical repercussions of the battle. It is here where you will learn why Alexander the Great's victory over Darius and the Persian Army was the most influential battle ever fought, or how how Rome slowly disintegrated after the reign of Julius Caesar, or what the effects of the fall of Constantinople were on Europe at the end of the Middle Ages.This is the first volume of a three-volume set which chronicles the major wars up to World War II. I can think of no other written account of military history which is at once so encompassing, and yet so readable. Highly recommended!