This comprehensive account of warfare in the West begins 2,500 years ago when the Greeks and Macedonians first supplemented their spears with slings, arrows, and javelins; and concludes with a thought-provoking look at the present age, when missiles of a different kind are the ultimate weapons. Throughout, Archer Jones explains the development of tactics, logistics, strategy, and weaponry, and shows the effect of such developments in concise narratives of major battles on land, sea, and in the air.

Inviting comparisons with Clausewitz's On War and Antoine Henri Jomini's Summary of the Art of War, The Art of war in the Western World is the magnum opus of one of the world's most respected military historians, and a book that is likely to stand for a generation as the standard work on how men conduct war.