Warfare, State and Society in the Byznatine World is the first comprehensive study of the warfare and the Byzantine World from the sixth to the twelfth century. The book examines Byzantine attitudes to warfare, the effects of war on society and culture, and the relations between the soldiers, their leaders and society. The communications, logistics, resources and manpower capabilities of the Byzantine Empire are explored to set warfare in its geographical as well as historical context. In addition to the strategic and tactical evolution of the army, this book analyses the army in campaign and in battle, and its attitudes to violence in the context of the Byzantine Orthodox Church.

Warfare, State and Society in the Byzantine World is the first comprehensive study of warfare and the Byzantine world from the sixth to the twelfth century. The book examines Byzantine attitudes to warfare, the effects of war on society and culture, and the relations between the soldiers, their leaders and society. The communications, logistics, resources and manpower capabilities of the Byzantine Empire are explored to set warfare in its geographical as well as historical context. In addition to the strategic and tactical evolution of the army, this book analyses the army in campaign and in battle, and its attitudes to violence in the context of the Byzantine Orthodox Church. The Byzantine Empire has an enduring fascination for all those who study it, and Warfare, State and Society is a colourful study of the central importance of warfare within it.

Byzantium survived for 800 years, yet its dominions and power fluctuated dramatically during that time. John Haldon tells the story from the days when the Empire was barely clinging on to survival, to the age when its fabulous wealth attracted Viking mercenaries and Asian nomad warriors to its armies, their very appearance on the field enough to bring enemies to terms. In 1453 the last emperor of Byzantium, Constantine XII, died fighting on the ramparts, bringing to a romantic end the glorious history of this legendary empire.

The late Byzantine period was a time characterized by both civil strife and foreign invasion, framed by two cataclysmic events: the fall of Constantinople to the western Europeans in 1204 and again to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. Mark C. Bartusis here opens an extraordinary window on the Byzantine Empire during its last centuries by providing the first comprehensive treatment of the dying empire's military. Although the Byzantine army was highly visible, it was increasingly ineffective in preventing the incursion of western European crusaders into the Aegean, the advance of the Ottoman Turks into Europe, and the slow decline and eventual fall of the thousand-year Byzantine Empire. Using all the available Greek, western European, Slavic, and Turkish sources, Bartusis describes the evolution of the army both as an institution and as an instrument of imperial policy. He considers the army's size, organization, administration, and the varieties of soldiers, and he examines Byzantine feudalism and the army's impact on society and the economy. In its extensive use of soldier companies composed of foreign mercenaries, the Byzantine army had many parallels with those of western Europe; in the final analysis, Bartusis contends, the death of Byzantium was attributable more to a shrinking fiscal base than to any lack of creative military thinking on the part of its leaders.

In this concise history of war, Jeremy Black ranges widely, giving due attention to non-western as well as western traditions. The history of war is inextricably bound to the history of the world. Through a detailed exploration of 'world-scale' issues of warfare, presented within a chronological framework that spans human history, Jeremy Black skilfully illustrates this fact whilst providing the reader with other astute insights and compelling interpretations of war. War: A Short History is a dramatic move away from the formulaic, western approach to military history. Too narrow in its focus on wars specific to the west and too simple because of an over-reliance on a technologically-deterministic reading of warfare, this approach has been rejected by Jeremy Black in favour of a global model that takes all factors into account when considering the strengths and weaknesses of a particular military tradition. This is a book that is as important for its relevance to current world issues of conflict as it is for its thorough consideration of a monumentally significant aspect of human history.

Rethinking Military History is a bold new 'thought book' that reconsiders military history at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The chapters provide a valuable and concise survey of the main themes in the study of military history from 1500 to the present day as Jeremy Black reveals the main trends in the practice and approach to mili