War Since 1900
Graphically akin to Black’s The Seventy Greatest Battles in History (2006), this military history of the twentieth century supports each contributor’s chapter with maps, photographs and illustrations, and diagrams of the era’s signature weapons (e.g., the tank). The nearly 300 images do not, however, overwhelm texts that succinctly address the dozen time periods and the developments in naval and air power that Black uses to topically organize them. Apparently he instructed contributing historians to emphasize continuities and changes in the conduct of war, which is drastically different in 2010 than it was in 1914. Professional, volunteer forces now fight expeditionary-style wars for opaque aims; then, mass-conscript legions struggled for total victory over their enemies in WWI. By the 1990s, air power seemed to realize a century’s worth of strategic prophets’ promises but soon proved again to be less than decisive against insurgencies in undeveloped countries. Covering wars preceding and following WWI, the anticolonial conflicts of WWII’s aftermath, the cold war, and Middle East wars, Black’s visual introduction should grab both browsers and military-history mavens. --Gilbert Taylor