The Political and Strategic History of the World Books in Order

The Political and Strategic History of the World is Conrad Black's attempt at old-fashioned large-scale history. Instead of narrowing in on one nation or one century, the books move across civilizations, empires, religions, and wars. In the volumes listed here, the series runs from the earliest recorded societies in the ancient world to 1661, so the cast is huge and the setting keeps changing.

The Political and Strategic History of the World, Vol. 1 starts with the earliest written civilizations of the Near East and then moves through the Greeks, Persians, Alexander's conquests, and Rome up to the age of Augustus. The focus is less on everyday life than on the making of states. Black is interested in rulers, generals, institutions, military systems, and the political choices that let one power rise while another stalls or breaks apart.

This is big-canvas history.

The Political and Strategic History of the World, Vol II picks up with the Roman Empire and its long decline, then pushes through the barbarian invasions, Byzantium, the rise of Christianity, Islamic expansion, the Mongols, the growth of European kingdoms, the Reformation, and the Thirty Years' War. The scene shifts constantly, from Rome to Constantinople, from the Mediterranean to northern Europe, and from imperial politics to church conflict and state formation.

What links the books is the question in the series title, strategy. Black is not simply listing dates or retelling battles. He wants to show how power is gathered, organized, defended, and lost. Why do some leaders build durable systems while others overreach? How do religion, law, geography, and military force shape the survival of states? Those are the threads that carry from chapter to chapter, even when the names and places change.

Because of that approach, the series reads more like a long narrative argument than a standard reference work. The central figures are emperors, kings, generals, popes, and founders, but whole civilizations are part of the story too. Readers who enjoy broad synthesis, political history, and strong judgments about historical actors will find a lot to dig into.

It is a series for readers who want the very wide view. If you prefer microhistory or close study of one place, this may feel too panoramic. But if you like seeing ancient empires, religious movements, and early modern states laid out in one connected story, the appeal is obvious. Black writes as someone trying to explain how the political map of the world was made, one ambitious ruler, one war, and one institutional settlement at a time.