From the depiction of the battle of Pinkie Cleugh to the trench maps of World War I, this collection highlights the extraordinary influence cartography has had on the nature of warfare. Each illustration is accompanied by an extended caption on the background to the war, including the planning & conduct of the battle in question.

There is little documented mapping of conflict prior to the Renaissance period, but, from the 17th century onwards, military commanders and strategists began to document the wars in which they were involved and later, to use mapping to actually plan the progress of a conflict. Using contemporary maps, this sumptuous new volume covers the history of the mapping of war on land and shows the way in which maps provide a guide to the history of war. Content includes: The beginnings of military mapping up to 1600 including the impact of printing and the introduction of gunpowder The seventeenth century: The focus is on maps to illustrate war, rather than as a planning tool and the chapter considers the particular significance of maps of fortifications. The eighteenth century: The growing need for maps on a world scale reflects the spread of European power and of transoceanic conflict between Europeans. This chapter focuses in particular on the American War of Independence. The nineteenth century: Key developments included contouring and the creation of military surveying. Subjects include the Napoleonic Wars and the American Civil War The twentieth century including extended features on the First and Second World Wars including maps showing trench warfare and aerial reconnaissance. Much of the chapter focuses on the period from 1945 to the present day including special sections on the Vietnam War and the Gulf Wars.

A magnificent visual survey of how conflict was recorded and planned, using maps produced at the time to reveal how warfare and its documentation has changed through the centuries. There is little documented mapping of conflict prior to the Renaissance period, but, from the 17th century onwards, military commanders and strategists began to document the wars in which they were involved and later, to use mapping to actually plan the progress of a conflict. Using contemporary maps, this sumptuous new volume covers the history of the mapping of war on land and shows the way in which maps provide a guide to the history of war. Content includes: - The beginnings of military mapping up to 1600 including the impact of printing and the introduction of gunpowder - The seventeenth century: The focus is on maps to illustrate war, rather than as a planning tool and the chapter considers the particular significance of maps of fortifications. - The eighteenth century: The growing need for maps on a world scale reflects the spread of European power and of transoceanic conflict between Europeans. This chapter focuses in particular on the American War of Independence. - The nineteenth century: Key developments included contouring and the creation of military surveying. Subjects include the Napoleonic Wars and the American Civil War - The twentieth century including extended features on the First and Second World Wars including maps showing trench warfare and aerial reconnaissance. Much of the chapter focuses on the period from 1945 to the present day including special sections on the Vietnam War and the Gulf Wars.

From the first shots fired at Fort Sumter in 1861 to the final clashes on the Road to Appomattox in 1864, The Atlas of the Civil War reconstructs the battles of America's bloodiest war with unparalleled clarity and precision. Edited by Pulitzer Prize recipient James M. McPherson and written by America's leading military historians, this peerless reference charts the major campaigns and skirmishes of the Civil War. Each battle is meticulously plotted on one of 200 specially commissioned full-color maps. Timelines provide detailed, play-by-play maneuvers, and the accompanying text highlights the strategic aims and tactical considerations of the men in charge. Each of the battle, communications, and locator maps are cross-referenced to provide a comprehensive overview of the fighting as it swept across the country. With more than two hundred photographs and countless personal accounts that vividly describe the experiences of soldiers in the fields, The Atlas of the Civil War brings to life the human drama that pitted state against state and brother against brother.

The Civil War: The Story of the War with Maps combines the colorful, detailed maps of an atlas with the vivid storytelling of the best narratives to piece together the nation-spanning jigsaw puzzle of the American Civil War. See the conflict develop from a few small armies into total war engulfing the whole South. • The campaigns and battles are all here, with maps zooming in on the maneuvering and attacking armies: Bull Run, Shiloh, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, the Wilderness, Atlanta, and more. • The nationwide perspective--absent from so many other books and shown here on full-page maps--connects these dots into a cohesive story of the entire war, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River, from Pennsylvania to the Gulf of Mexico. • Distilling events into their essentials, the text focuses on the military history of the conflict and its cast of colorful commanders--Lee, Grant, Sherman, McClellan, and Stonewall Jackson. • Captures all the war's intensity and human drama, its epic sweep from Sumter to Appomattox. The result is a unique book that educates, enlightens, and entertains. An ideal introduction for newcomers, refresher for buffs, and companion to other books during the war’s 150th anniversary and beyond.

The First World War was marked by an exceptional expansion in the use and production of military cartography. But World War II took things even further, employing maps, charts, reconnaissance, and the systematic recording and processing of geographical and topographical information on an unprecedented scale. As Jeremy Black—one of the world’s leading military and cartographic historians—convincingly shows in this lavish full-color book, it is impossible to understand the events and outcomes of the Second World War without deep reference to mapping at all levels. In World War II, maps themselves became the weapons. A History of the Second World War in 100 Maps traces how military cartography developed from simply recording and reflecting history to having a decisive impact on events of a global scale. Drawing on one hundred key maps from the unparalleled collections of the British Library and other sources—many of which have never been published in book form before--Jeremy Black takes us from the prewar mapping programs undertaken by both Germany and the United Kingdom in the mid-1930s through the conflict’s end a decade later. Black shows how the development of maps led directly to the planning of the complex and fluid maneuvers that defined the European theater in World War II: for example, aerial reconnaissance photography allowed for the charting of beach gradients and ocean depths in the runup to the D-Day landings, and the subsequent troop movements at Normandy would have been impossible without the help of situation maps and photos. In the course of the conflict, both in Europe and the Pacific, the realities of climate, terrain, and logistics—recorded on maps—overcame the Axis powers. Maps also became propaganda tools as the pages of Time outlined the directions of the campaigns and the Allies dropped maps from their aircraft. ​ In this thrilling and unique book, Jeremy Black blends his singular cartographic and military expertise into a captivating overview of World War II from the air, sea, and sky, making clear how fundamental maps were to every aspect of this unforgettable global conflict.