Synopses & Reviews
Advance Praise for War Made New Max Boot traces the impact of military revolutions on the course of politics and history over the past 500 years. In doing so, he shows that changes in military technology are limited not to warfighting alone, but play a decisive role in shaping our world. Sweeping and erudite, while entirely accessible to the lay reader, this work is key for anyone interested in where military revolutions have taken usand where they might lead in the future.
U.S. Senator John McCain
While much has been in written in recent years about the so-called Revolution in Military Affairs, Max Boot is the first scholar to place it within the broad sweep of history, and in the context of the rise of the West in world affairs since 1500. In so doing, he not only tells a remarkable tale, but he compels us all, even those obsessed solely with contemporary military affairs, to ask the right questions and to distinguish what is truly new and revolutionary from what is merely ephemeral. He has rendered a valuable service, and given us a fascinating read at the same time, so we are doubly in his debt.
Paul Kennedy, Professor of History at Yale University and author of The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers
War Made New is impressive in scope. What is equally impressive is its unique interpretation of the causal relationship between technology, warfare and the contemporary social milieu. This is a superb thinking person's book which scrutinizes conventional historical wisdom through a new lens.
Lt. Gen. Bernard E. Trainor, USMC (ret.), co-author of Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq
Max Boot's book takes hundred of years of tactical battle history and reduces it to an incisive narrative of how war has changed. By providing such a coherent view of the past, he has pointed us toward the future. What is doubly impressive is how he draws surprising, fresh lessons from wars we thought we knew so much about but in fact didn't.
Robert D. Kaplan, author of Imperial Grunts
Review
"Mr. Boot takes a daring and successful tack in approaching his subject; rather than attempt to be exhaustively comprehensive, he treats battles like lily pads, jumping from one to the next in quick succession across the pond of history." Wall Street Journal
Review
"Readable and informative, this book provides a valuable overview of how military innovations can abruptly affect the course of history." Library Journal
Review
"Max Boot, in his meticulously researched new book...does as much as any other writer of recent vintage to bring the fleshy reality of warfare back into view....[A] timely and important work, providing an excellent thumbnail sketch of the sometimes simultaneous strokes of genius, luck, and technological smarts that kings and generals have used for centuries to best their enemies in the field." Paul McLeary, The Christian Science Monitor (read the entire CSM review)
Synopsis
An analysis of the pivotal role of technology in modern warfare focuses on four historical periods that shaped the rise and fall of empires, in a narrative account that covers such topics as gunpowder, the Industrial Revolution, and stealth aircraft. First serial, American Heritage.
About the Author
Max Boot is the author of the award-winning The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power, which was selected as a 2002 Best Book of the Year by The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and The Christian Science Monitor. A senior fellow in national security studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and a weekly foreign-affairs columnist for the Los Angeles Times, he lectures regularly at numerous military schools and advises the Department of Defense on transformation issues.
Exclusive Essay
Read an exclusive essay by Max Boot