Geoffrey Parker

"Western nations - led by the United States - currently hold a strong advantage in almost all military confrontations. How did the 'Western way of war' become so dominant? This book, written by a team of eight distinguished military historians, provides an answer that runs from the origins in Classical Greece and Rome, through the Middle Ages (when enemies of the West almost triumphed) and the early modern period (when the West used military force to carve out extensive new territories, first in the Americas and Siberia and then around the coasts of Asia and Africa), down to the wars of the twenty-first century in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. The book stresses five essential aspects of the Western way of war: a combination of technology, discipline, and an aggressive military tradition with an extraordinary capacity to respond rapidly to challenges and to use capital rather than manpower to win. Although the focus throughout this book remains on the West, and on the role of violence in its rise, each chapter also examines the military effectiveness of its adversaries and the regions in which the West's military edge has been - and continues to be - challenged."--

"Often in the past, the Edmondson Lectures have tended to fall into one of two distinct categories: they either conveyed the results of recent historical research, or they constituted a synthesis of a scholar's lifetime work on a subject of major historical importance. Professor Parker's lectures combine the two approaches in a masterful way as he analyzes the manner in which Philip II of Spain managed his global Empire while being driven - and tragically handicapped - by an overpowering messianic complex. Parker's lectures combine the most profound insights with a lucidity of presentation."--BOOK JACKET.

"This is a new edition of Geoffrey Parker's much-admired illustrated account of how the West, so small and so deficient in natural resources in 1500, had by 1800 come to control over one third of the world. This edition incorporates new material, including a substantial 'Afterword' which summarizes the debate which developed after the book's first publication." "Geoffrey Parker's argument is in two parts. First the military practice of the West 'at home' in Europe is analysed, with special reference to the role of firearms in the transformation of both offensive and defensive warfare; to the rapid growth in army size; and to the creation of ocean-going warships which fought with long-range guns instead of ramming and boarding. He then argues that these major changes amounted to a 'military revolution' which gave Westerners a decided advantage over the people of other continents: over the Amerindians in the sixteenth century, over most Indonesians in the seventeenth, and over many Indians and Africans in the eighteenth. The book concludes with a brief survey of how the industrial revolution caused a second series of military changes which allowed the West to dominate almost the entire world by 1914." --Book Jacket.

"Spanish America was to a large extent the creation of one man - Philip II of Spain, "The Most Potent Monarch of Christendom." Philip ruled a quarter of the world's population, including the Philippines (named after him), everything from Florida to the southern tip of Chile, and much of Europe. Philip is also noted for a great failure - his ill-fated attempt to invade England with his Armada.". "Obsessively devoted to his faith, Philip could never trust anyone, and would not compromise with Protestants or Muslims. He watched with righteous delight the agonies of heretics burning at the stake. He had a tremendous capacity for detailed administrative work, sometimes dealing with as many as four hundred documents a day. Yet he was almost equally devoted to pleasure and the Arts. Philip was a connoisseur who relished Titian and Bosch, but was strangely blind to the genius on his doorstep: El Greco." "In this biography, Geoffrey Parker drew upon a vast, previously untapped collection of the king's private correspondence, in which he expressed his emotions, personal thoughts, and social philosophy. This new edition has a Bibliographical Essay, evaluating the many new works on Philip published on and around the 400th anniversary of his death."--BOOK JACKET.

Discusses the life of a European soldier in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, including his training, weapons, and conditions of service.

"Revolutions, droughts, famines, invasions, wars, regicides - the calamities of the mid-seventeenth century were not only unprecedented, they were agonizingly widespread. A global crisis extended from England to Japan, and from the Russian Empire to sub-Saharan Africa. North and South America, too, suffered turbulence. The distinguished historian Geoffrey Parker examines first-hand accounts of men and women throughout the world describing what they saw and suffered during a sequence of political, economic and social crises that stretched from 1618 to the 1680s. Parker also deploys scientific evidence concerning climate conditions of the period, and his use of 'natural' as well as 'human' archives transforms our understanding of the World Crisis. Changes in the prevailing weather patterns during the 1640s and 1650s - longer and harsher winters, and cooler and wetter summers - disrupted growing seasons, causing dearth, malnutrition, and disease, along with more deaths and fewer births. Some contemporaries estimated that one-third of the world died, and much of the surviving historical evidence supports their pessimism. Parker's demonstration of the link between climate change and worldwide catastrophe 350 years ago stands as an extraordinary historical achievement. And the contemporary implications of his study are equally important: are we at all prepared today for the catastrophes that climate change could bring tomorrow?"--Publisher's website.