Book Summary: World at War: Understanding Conflict and Society is an essential source of reference material on the military conflicts that have defined global history from antiquity to today. Through absorbing investigations of how the World War I peace settlement led to World War II, or insightful comparisons of U.S. past involvement in Southeast Asia with the Afghanistan War, this database encourages study and research that goes beyond isolated events to identify causal relationships, chart historical developments, and analyze the role conflict itself plays in society. Content quality is maintained by an expert advisory board, comprised of educators and historians including Dr. Spencer Tucker (the award-winning author of titles such as The Encyclopedia of Middle East Wars and American Civil War: The Definitive Encyclopedia and Document Collection).This advisory board also serves to vet the database's original journal articles, which expose researchers to scholarly argumentation on controversial topics in global military history.

Book Summary: Wars create important turning points in human history, defining our leaders and changing the lives of ordinary families and citizens. Whether fighting for independence, forging alliances, making a play for dominance, or battling a global threat, nations shape history—and the world—when they go to war. World at War: Understanding Conflict and Society presents overviews of 50 wars, rebellions, and revolutions, both those commonly taught and those less so, and provides additional analysis of causes and consequences and portraits of opponents. The effect is to elucidate the global impact of these military conflicts that have defined our world from antiquity to today such that students and researchers may develop a deeper, critical appreciation of both the history of the world and the human costs of war.