When did war begin? Archaeologists and historians have in the past been curiously reluctant to study the early history of organized warfare. Standard military accounts tend to start with the Graeco-Persian wars and to lay undue emphasis on the pre-eminence of Greek heavy infantry. But, as this strikingly original and entertaining book shows, the origins of war can be traced back, not to the Iron Age, or even to the Bronze Age, but to the emergence of settled life itself nearly 10,000 years ago. The military revolution that occurred at that time – the major new weapons, the massive fortifications, the creation of strategy and tactics – ultimately gave rise to the great war machines of ancient Egypt, Assyria and Persia which dominated the Near East to the time of Alexander the Great.

It is Professor Ferrill's thesis that in the period before Alexander there were two independent lines of military development, a Near Eastern one culminating in the expert integration of cavalry, skirmishers and light infantry, and a Greek one based on heavy infantry. When Philip and Alexander blended the two traditions in their crack Macedonian army, the result was a style of warfare that continued, despite technological changes, down to Napoleon. To prove his point, as a tailpiece Professor Ferrill recreates the battle of Waterloo as if Alexander were in Napoleon's shoes, and concludes that it would have been a "near-run thing."

Complete with detailed and copiously illustrated accounts of all the major battles on land and sea up to the fourth century BC, analysis of weapons from the sling to the catapult, and discussion of ancient strategy and tactics, this is a book for armchair historians everywhere.