The Pursuit of Power

In this magnificent synthesis of military, technological, and social history, William H. McNeill explores more than a millennium during which humanity underwent profound changes, tracing the path that has led us to the extraordinary challenges we face today. With equal mastery, McNeill moves from the crossbow—banned by the Church in 1139 as too deadly a weapon for Christians to use against one another—to nuclear missiles, from the sociological consequences of drills in the seventeenth century to the emergence of the military-industrial complex in the twentieth century. His central thesis is that the commercial transformation of societies worldwide in the eleventh century led to an increasingly pronounced response of warfare to market forces, as well as to the commands of rulers. “The Pursuit of Power” does not claim to solve the problems of the present, but the discoveries, hypotheses, and vast scope of knowledge presented in the book offer a different perspective on our current fears and—McNeill hopes—provide a foundation for wiser action.

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No summary can do justice to McNeill’s complex, encyclopedic approach... His erudition is astonishing, as he moves effortlessly from European to Chinese and Islamic cultures, and from military and technological developments to socio-economic and political change. The result is a sweeping interdisciplinary synthesis that tells us almost as much about the history of butter as it does about the history of weapons... McNeill’s greater achievement, however, is to remind us that all humanity shares a common past and—especially in matters of weapons and warfare—a shared interest in the future.

Washington Post Book World