The Pursuit of Power: Technology, Armed Force, and Society since A.D. 1000 2nd ed. Edition,

This synthesis of military, technological, and social history spans a millennium, tracing how humanity has arrived at contemporary global challenges. William H. McNeill examines the evolution from the crossbow—banned by the Church in 1139 as too lethal for Christian-on-Christian combat—to the nuclear missile, and analyzes shifts from the sociological effects of seventeenth-century military drill to the twentieth-century rise of the military-industrial complex. McNeill's central argument holds that a commercial transformation of world society in the eleventh century caused military activity to increasingly respond to market forces alongside rulers' commands. He suggests that only in recent times have command economies begun replacing market control of large-scale human effort. The book does not resolve present-day problems but offers historical perspective on current concerns through its breadth of learning and analysis of how rationality has been applied to destructive purposes.