War Chronicles From Chariots to Flintlocks: 1350 B. C. to 1800 A. D., Vol. 1 Book

22 Centuries of Warfare, 22 Wars that Changed the World.

All are captured in 400 pages filled with more than 150 archival illustrations gathered from around the world. The War Chronicles acts as a perfect primer for novices while offering seasoned history readers new perspectives on many famous and some not-so-well-known conflicts. Each chapter includes a quick-reference summary, a timeline, an overview of the war, essays on its principal leaders, a series of short, often offbeat features on aspects of the conflict, and a detailed account of a pivotal battle.

Author Joseph Cummins highlights pivotal victories that changed nations, from the Norman invasion of England in 1066 to the Spanish conquest of Mexico in 1521, and delineates defining moments in the development of political philosophies, from Athens’ defense of democracy against Persian despotism to the championing of equal rights for all in the American Revolution. It recounts the heroism of armies and individuals, from the Spartans’ fight to the death against the Persians at Thermopylae in 480 BC to the Korean admiral who inspired his country to repel a massive Japanese invasion in the 1590s. Yet it does not shy away from showing the acts of savagery that characterize much warfare, describing, for example, the trail of devastation left by the Mongols as they cut a swath through Asia and Eastern Europe in the thirteenth century, and the atrocities perpetrated on German civilians by all sides in the Thirty Years’ War of the seventeenth century.

“Cummins’ main goal of illustrating the law of unintended consequences is nimbly achieved with gripping stories and livelywriting.”

—Library Journal

Joseph Cummins (Maplewood, NJ) is the author of History's Great Untold Stories: Larger Than Life Characters and Dramatic Events That Changed the World. His forthcoming books include Turn Around and Run Like Hell: Unconventional Military Strategies That Worked, History's Greatest Hits, and Anything for a Vote: Dirty Tricks and October Surprises in America's Presidential Campaigns

Edwin B. Burgess - Library Journal

In the first volume of a projected two-volume set, Cummins (History's Great Untold Stories) offers short, chronological narratives of dozens of subjects, from the Greco-Persian Wars and King Leonidas through the American Revolution and Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne. Featuring strong color images, it is an easily navigated compilation with time lines and wide-ranging subpieces ("the Dossier") that add interest. Made to order for help with historical essays in high school and college, it is also simply a fun book that you might pick up over and over to check your memory of, say, the Battle of Poltava. With a brief bibliography but virtually no citations.