The business of war is unfortunately all too present in today’s world, yet the activities of weapons researchers and developers, arms manufacturers, military contractors, military gear designers, military trade shows, gun dealers, military suppliers, and private military companies are not well understood.

Secrecy, arms accords, military espionage, corporate spying, and economic competition often result in military logistics and arms issues being obscured from public view. Certainly, Hollywood tends to treat the business of war as a nefarious underworld in war films—and perhaps that is completely justified.

Unfortunately, there continue to be few comprehensive studies of the business of war.

David Parrott’s The Business of War: Military Enterprise and Military Revolution in
Early Modern Europe (2012) is thus especially welcome. This book provides an important historical study of the business of war in the early modern Europe and lays the groundwork for future studies of the business of war in different historical periods.

My book review of David Parrott’s The Business of War has now been published in H-War and is available online at: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=38909

The full listing for the book is:

David Parrott. The Business of War: Military Enterprise and Military Revolution in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. xvii + 429 pp. $29.99, paper, ISBN 978-0-521-73558-2.