The Military Revolution: Military Innovation and the Rise of the West, 1500-1800

I bought this book at Uni for a tutorial that never happened and remember it as being an interesting read back then. Re-reading it so many years later, it is just as fascinating. It's quite short, has some full page illustrations, a large font and quite a lot of the pages are taken up with end notes. When you combine this with a not so interesting historiography at the beginning, it's a far shorter read than you'd expect.There's a lot to take in, but it's great to see Parker explore the non-European world so thoroughly.

I am a huge fan of Parker's works, but not this one. He has a depth of knowledge in his own field that is second to none, but trying to develop a meta-narrative from global sources has stretched this beyond its natural limits. Thirty five years after it was first published it now feels rather naïve and the handling of non-European material uncritical. His instincts were spot on, but the research at that time did not support his vision. This may be unfair, as the work was undoubtedly ground-breaking in its day, but I feel that day is now past. I would heartily recommend reading Parker's 'The Army of Flanders and Spanish Road' and 'The Dutch Revolt' but I would give this one a miss.