In this, the first global survey of ancient warfare, a group of distinguished historians and archaeologists discuss major battles and wars not only from ancient Egypt, the Near East, Greece and Rome, but also from Central Asia, India, China, Korea, Japan and the Americas. The book ranges in time from 800 BC and the earliest definite evidence for warfare in northern Iraq to the armies of the Aztecs and Incas half a millennium ago, and includes Alexander the Great's triumphant campaigns against Persia , Hannibal's conflict with Rome and Caesar's Gallic Wars.

Navy photographers with unparalleled access to ships and facilities around the world took the 300+ photos featured in U.S. Naval Vessels, Volume 1. These photographers document all aspects of operations in peace and war with photos taken from the air, aboard ship, and at bases worldwide. This book covers U.S. Navy and Coast Guard ships and submarines. This volume includes combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, humanitarian missions around the world, training exercises with other nations, weapons testing, ship construction, and maintenance operations. The vast majority of these photographs are candid shots taken during actual operations conducted during 2006. All types of ships are covered, including aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers, attack and ballistic missile submarines, Coast Guard cutters, oilers and replenishment ships, ice breakers, and experimental ships. All of the photos include the date it was taken and a description of the event, providing invaluable information for modelers and history buffs as a reference work.

The capture of the Hapsburg city of Vienna was a major strategic aspiration for the Islamic Ottoman Empire, desperate for the control that the city exercized over the Danube and the overland trade routes between southern and northern Europe. In July 1683 Sultan Mehmet IV proclaimed a jihad and the Turkish grand vizier, Kara Mustafa Pasha, laid siege to the city with an army of 150,000 men. In September a relieving force arrived under Polish command and joined up with the defenders to drive the Turks away. The main focus of this book is the final 15-hour battle for Vienna, which peaked with a massive charge by three divisions of Polish winged hussars. This hard-won victory marked the beginning of the decline of the Islamic Ottoman Empire, which was never to threaten central Europe again.