A few weeks ago, while casually surfing the web, I came across a cartoon. Donald Trump, the US President, and Kim Jong-un, the North Korean Supreme Leader, were both caricatured as naked little boys having a standoff, with nuclear missiles drawn in place of their ‘manhood’. No matter how offensive you might find it to be, the cartoon stands to prove one thing - for all the sense of self-importance that we humans hold for being the ‘most intelligent species on the planet’, there are quite a bunch of inherent vices that prove to be perfect antitheses to such beliefs.
Compassion, Love and Empathy may not all be present in every human being, but Greed, Corruption and Violence are perfectly embedded within our selves in varying degrees. Starting from the Biblical times when Cain slew Abel due to envy, to these modern days where ‘leaders of men’ hold the world hostage with their nuclear whims, we have always encouraged violence. It will not be wrong to say that we are even fascinated by it. TV, media and movies are all thrive on violence of one form or the other. And, war is the perfect theatre where we humans give a free hand to our violent personalities.
I have always liked the books of ‘50 Ideas You Really Need To Know’ series. Presenting 50 little essays on any chosen subject, peppered with snippets of info all over the pages, these books are a collector’s pleasure. So is this book on war. Robin Cross starts from the days when the war chariots first came into being and concludes with a look at war in the cyberspace, where the ‘warriors’ need not even move from their seats. In this work stretching across millennia, he has chosen 50 ideas, innovations, weapons that changed the course of war and proved decisive. Ranging from the Roman Legions to the unmanned combat aerial vehicles, from longships of Vikings to the deep-diving submarines, monstrous cannons to machine guns, this book takes a peek at everything that has ever been a masterpiece of the gore art of war.
But, there is something disappointing about the work. First of all, this book sounds more like a mere collection of facts than like the fascinating subject that history is. There is a bit of incoherence in the writing at times as well. A little dry and dull writing style in the middle makes for uninteresting reading. Also, this isn’t the ‘history’ of war, as the title states, but only a highlight of some of the weapons and tools that changed the face of war.
While the subject is something that we might all like or even love, the book isn’t. A moderate shot at the very long history of wars! Interesting topic written in insipid style!
Compassion, Love and Empathy may not all be present in every human being, but Greed, Corruption and Violence are perfectly embedded within our selves in varying degrees. Starting from the Biblical times when Cain slew Abel due to envy, to these modern days where ‘leaders of men’ hold the world hostage with their nuclear whims, we have always encouraged violence. It will not be wrong to say that we are even fascinated by it. TV, media and movies are all thrive on violence of one form or the other. And, war is the perfect theatre where we humans give a free hand to our violent personalities.
I have always liked the books of ‘50 Ideas You Really Need To Know’ series. Presenting 50 little essays on any chosen subject, peppered with snippets of info all over the pages, these books are a collector’s pleasure. So is this book on war. Robin Cross starts from the days when the war chariots first came into being and concludes with a look at war in the cyberspace, where the ‘warriors’ need not even move from their seats. In this work stretching across millennia, he has chosen 50 ideas, innovations, weapons that changed the course of war and proved decisive. Ranging from the Roman Legions to the unmanned combat aerial vehicles, from longships of Vikings to the deep-diving submarines, monstrous cannons to machine guns, this book takes a peek at everything that has ever been a masterpiece of the gore art of war.
But, there is something disappointing about the work. First of all, this book sounds more like a mere collection of facts than like the fascinating subject that history is. There is a bit of incoherence in the writing at times as well. A little dry and dull writing style in the middle makes for uninteresting reading. Also, this isn’t the ‘history’ of war, as the title states, but only a highlight of some of the weapons and tools that changed the face of war.
While the subject is something that we might all like or even love, the book isn’t. A moderate shot at the very long history of wars! Interesting topic written in insipid style!
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