Professor Black (Exeter, Emeritus) is known for tackling hefty topics, giving them a global spin, and transmuting the details into a stream of energetic prose.

This achievement is then somehow compressed into a work of surprisingly modest length – in this case, 206 pages of text.

When I was handed this book to review, however, I thought, “Oh no…this time, he’s bitten off more than he can chew.”

I was aware that he had already published two global histories for Pen & Sword publishers: one on artillery and another on cavalry. These were relatively bounded topics, however. They did not demand an examination of as many factors as a world wide survey of the earliest, most ubiquitous, and most multipurpose military arm would.

To be properly addressed, the subject of infantry is broader than its battlefield functions. Black would need to conduct a social and political analysis that, at a minimum, includes topics such as class distinctions, weapon diffusions, state formations, civil-military relations, and mass army recruitment, to name just a few issues to be examined and compared. Black himself admits: The range of contexts and taskings for infantry make comparisons difficult. (p.191)

Does he Pull it Off? Yes, mostly—he taps the edges of many bases as he speeds home. However, this accomplishment isn’t always reader-friendly. Absorbing his racing, winding river of considerations on such a complex general subject proved -- umm --- challenging.

More on that later.

Let’s look at some of the key points in Black’s high-speed guided tour. Infantry tactics evolved in response to organizational and tactical changes spurred by advances in weaponry, especially since the High Middle Ages. These changes affected the pace of advances in firepower. Unlike many military histories, Black also clearly shows how the infantry mirrors a society’s political and social priorities.

“Often crucial to combat, infantry has also served in many non-combat roles, notably as the arm of government. As a result, the achievements of infantry can be central to political history and nation-building….” (p. 189)

Yet, he doesn’t side-step the darker, more anti-status-quo political roles this arm has played; foot soldiers have often been central to rebellions, mutinies, coups, and revolutions.

Black favors comparative, non-Eurocentric frameworks, prompting broad sweeps of Asia, Africa, and the Americas infantries: e.g., tribal conflicts, resistance to imperialist suppressions, irregular local resistance, colonial recruitment of natives, and all types of asymmetrical warfare.

Structure. The book surveys eight historical epochs from antiquity to our transitional era. I was impressed with how Black provided a clear analysis of gunpowder’s early diffusion, starting with China’s “fire arrows” in the 900s AD and proto-guns a century later.

Black underlines the crucial significance of this innovation:

“Handguns developed in China, where they were differentiated from cannon by the 14th century, and had greater penetrating power than either longbows or crossbows. Gunpowder-driven projectiles have markedly higher velocity”. (P.46).

News of this wonder weapon and details of its use ultimately spread west through the Mongols and the Islamic world. The constant warfare that characterized fragmented European societies fostered slow but steady progress in gun/cannon design, powder mixtures, and metallurgy. By the mid-14th century, firearms were on battlefields such as Crecy (1346). Nevertheless, full replacement of infantry’s edged weapons by firepower projection was a slow and winding evolution. This substitution did not really take place until the latter 1600s in English and French armies.

Of course, tactical responses and weapon development continued to advance during this period. It reached the point where both projectile and edged weapons could be combined. Black sums up that next stage of that progress neatly in just two sentences:

“As pikes were replaced by muskets equipped with socket bayonets, so matchlocks muskets were replaced by flintlocks, which were more reliable and fired faster. The process of loading was complex but less vulnerable to wind, rain, and general humidity than with matchlocks.”

Complaints. That last quote is quite succinct and in keeping with Black’s choice of breadth over depth. Nevertheless, I found such succinctness rather rare. The author’s global survey encompasses the winding story of the infantry’s many roles across nations; so, not surprisingly, it is quite convoluted. His approach absolutely requires numerous sidebars and tangents in order to be as comprehensive as the book’s title promises. This is where I started to have some problems as a reader.

For instance, the gunpowder revolution is introduced on page 46 in the Middle Ages chapter and concludes five pages later. Much territory is covered. Occasionally. I was disoriented by sudden shifts of subject: e.g., from the early limitations of handguns to the new arquebus used by city militiamen to the effects of low-density populations on recruitment. Rapid transitions are abruptly signaled by such phrases as “Despite,” “However,” “Although,” “A variant,” “It is far from clear,” or “these are by no means the sole….” Neither Prof. Black nor his editors appear to believe readers often appreciate little pauses furnished by subheads, charts, tables, or maps.

Despite this, I tended to forgive Prof. Black by the time I put his books down. I always glean some sparkly bits of new knowledge, fresh insights, or novel perspectives and comparisons. (I will mention one gem that you can share with female friends: To keep powder dry while loading a flintlock, soldiers used a wooden “tampion,” which just so happens to be the origin of the word “tampon.” )

Audience. This book will appeal to knowledgeable generalists or those seeking more than a Eurocentric narrative. My advice is to read slowly, pause to reread dense passages, and pay particular attention to transition phrases – they often signal sharp shifts in the narrative flow..

I, for one, am now eager to delve into the author’s earlier works on the other arms of battle – cavalry and artillery.

Given Prof. Black’s prolific output, I am confident we will soon see a fourth work from him, perhaps next year, that undertakes an ambitious explanation of another world-spanning military topic.

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Our Reviewer: A former naval officer, Richard Jupa was a senior finance editor at a major credit rating agency for more than two decades. He is also the co-author of Gulf Wars, on the 1991-1992 Gulf War, and has published over a dozen articles on contemporary conflicts. His previous reviews include Strategy Shelved: The Collapse of Cold War Naval Strategic Planning, Pioneers of Irregular Warfare, Mars Adapting: Military Change During War, A Short History of War, Ancient Greeks at War: Warfare in the Classical World, from Agamemnon to Alexander, Dreadnoughts and Super-Dreadnoughts, The Roman Empire in Crisis, 248-260, A Military History of the Cold War, 1962-1991, Secrets of the Cold War, Ramesses the Great, Rome and Persia: The 700 Hundred Year Rivalry, China’s New Navy, Assyria: The Rise and Fall of the World's First Empire, Hannibal and Scipio, and The Civil War.

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Note: Infantry, A Global History is also available in an e-edition.

StrategyPage reviews are published in cooperation with The New York Military Affairs Symposium

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