An Epic historical work by Bill Clinton's Professor is now available online.
All history buffs should not miss this epic work.

http://www.carrollquigley.net/books.htm
Washington: University Press of America and Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. 1983. Pp. xvii. 1043. $36.50.
On his death in 1977, Carroll Quigley, professor at Georgetown University, left a long, but incomplete, manuscript, which his colleagues have now put into print (by photocopy of the typescript) together with appreciative comments and a list of his publications. The author's objective is to enlighten Americans on "the history of weapons systems and tactics, with special reference to the influence that these have had on political life and the stability of political arrangements" (p. 35).
Early in the work we are given an analysis of several dichotomies in military development: (1) amateur versus specialized weapons, the former of which could encourage the rise of democracy; (2) missile versus shock weapons, the former of which were preferred by Asiatic peoples 2000 a.c. to A.D. 1400, while Indo-European stocks tended to use shock weapons in that period; (3) the relative advantage of offensive or defensive tactics, a field in which oscillations have repeatedly taken place.
These variations are then discussed in the long sweep of human development from prehistory down to about A.D. 1500. The bulk of the text is devoted to Greek and Roman history for the period after what Quigley calls the "great divide" in Western Civilization that occurred about 600 b.c., but there is ample space for Chinese and nomadic history. The book is far more widely based than the brief bibliography suggests and is often provocatively independent in its judgments. Quigley does hop back and forth between Greece and Rome and mixes events of several centuries in one paragraph; the reader needs to be already well at home in ancient and also medieval history.

This book is awesome. I am on the third chapter...it talks about how weapons systems effect society and is very well written. It is a rare book, but no worries. There is a copy available on Amazon.ca for only 75 CAD.
By
H. Raeder "holgerraeder" (Allen, Tx United States) - See all my reviews
This book is out of print (I do not know why, since it is so important and great), but you can get it used for around $80.
By
Xinyu - See all my reviews