This was more a military history for me rather than a book that tied in geography in an analytical way. That is fine - just different from my expectations.

A difficult book to review. For a civilian reader deeply interested in military history -- meaning me -- it's breathtakingly insightful at one moment, numbingly tedious in the next.

Breathtakingly insightful: Prof. Black's brief but trenchant discussion of slippage in the use of the word "war" ("as in 'wars' on terror, crime, drugs, poverty, cancer, climate change, covid, and others"), with special attention to the "war on crime" given that in many states dissent is a political crime. He notes, too, that there's "a continuum between civil conflict and large-scale criminal activity." Oof. This brings to mind the present Russian attempt to subdue and annex Ukraine, given that the existing Russian government is in essence a large-scale criminal enterprise. Does this insight change how Ukraine's state supporters respond to Russia's aggression? Maybe so -- because if Russia's government weren't a criminal enterprise then one might be willing to consider its claims. (Then again, if it weren't a criminal enterprise it probably wouldn't be making those claims. Which in turn leads one to consider Western colonialism in the light of crime -- something one might've already been doing, of course.)

Numbingly tedious: The tedium arises, paradoxically, from Prof. Black's evident intimate familiarity with the history of war in all times and places. That scope of erudition is a wonderful thing, except that it has produced paragraph after paragraph of one-sentence contextless examples of this battle and that battle and the fall of the other fortress. For a reader who doesn't have at her fingertips Prof. Black's range of knowledge, it's difficult to stay focused. I found myself reading for those nuggets of insight -- of which there are enough so that I had a kind of intellectual whiplash, being fascinated at one moment and glazing over in the next.

Would the book's structure be less daunting to a military historian or, say, a student at a military academy -- that is, to a person with an academic/deeper knowledge base than a lay reader has? Maybe marginally so. I did think long and hard about what I would have suggested had I been Prof. Black's editor, and what I came up with was a series of expansively written, fully contextualized examples of the major points, accompanied by appendices listing more examples, along with brief recapitulations. This would have resulted -- again paradoxically -- in a more informative book, because readers would have an easier time retaining the valuable insights Prof. Black wants to convey. Appendices that included the sources cited in the book as it exists now would enable readers to dig deeper, of course.

The prose presents another difficulty, more or less in parallel with the structural issues. Many passages are clearly and elegantly written -- I'm thinking, for instance, of the wonderful opening of chapter 2, where Prof. Black discusses the language of war's geography -- and then one stumbles into long, semi-punctuated sentences that go completely out of control, or into sentences like this clunker: "Human geography was part of the process and led to a variety of processes." God help us.

So I have all these complaints and objections -- and yet, for all its faults, for all the sheer labor entailed in reading it, I'd have to call this one of the most valuable works of military history I've ever read. More paradox! And 4 stars, for my own oscillation between 3 and 5.

I received an ARC from Netgalley and am voluntarily leaving this review.

A really interesting and thought provoking book. I’ve read other similar works and enjoyed them but this still provided enough information and interest to keep me engaged throughout. If you’re a geographiy geek like me you’ll love it.

Mr. Black traces the importance of geography in the conduct of war. Technologies adapt to geography, artillery, archery, and cavalry all of these are techniques that deal with geography and the limitations placed on man in the field of war. This is an excellent study of the realities of war.

The Geographies War give me details and insight about what I want to know about this topic. As the nonfiction this book explanation is detail but easy enough to understand even for readers who not familiar with the wars. It give enough interesting highlight of the causes and the long list of wars examples for each topic. The book will intriguing readers to make another follow up reading the war topic they interested and this is good at studying process.

The author is new name for me but it won't become my last read from him. Will glady recommendation this book to my fellow readers who love history and wars topic as me.

Thank you Netgalley and Pen & Sword, Pen & Sword Military for provided me this copy. I am grateful and my thoughts are my own.