There is little documented mapping of conflict prior to the Renaissance period, but, from the 17th century onward, military commanders and strategists began to document the wars in which they were involved and, later, to use mapping to actually plan the progress of a conflict. Using contemporary maps, Jeremy Black‘s Maps of War: Mapping Conflict through the Centuries (Conway, 2016) covers the history of the mapping of land wars, and shows the way in which maps provide a guide to the history of war.

You might also be interested in Black’s Maps and History: Constructing Images of the Past (Yale University Press, 2000)

Marshall Poe is the editor of the New Books Network. You can reach him here.