A History of Strategy is a recently-published survey of recorded military theory from the ancients to the moderns across the world.
Readable and brief enough to be digested in two or three determined sittings, A History of Strategy does not introduce the reader to the specific wisdoms of each source but rather demonstrates how theory changed from era to era and differed between hemispheres.
The ancient Westerners for example did not record a separate concept of strategy and instead wrote extensively about tactics and general advice. Eastern thought was familiar with strategy in one form or another from the earliest known texts. The West treated war as a generally straightforward application of violence while the East sought to maneuver into a position of mastery with a minimum of violence. The West saw war as a means to an end and the East saw it as a deviation from harmony -- though often necessary.
The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries saw an explosion of research into warfare as Europeans attempted to transmute new technologies, Enlightenment enthusiasms, and imperial urgency into the next frontiers of geopolitical dominance. The greatest military thinkers of the West both originated from & contributed to the wars of this period.
The World Wars saw an end to some theories and the origin of others, and the quest for the keys to tomorrow continues.
As I wrote above this is not an extensive book. If you are looking for in-depth biographies of military writers or analysis of their theories you will not find it here. What you will find is a high-level view of thought and historical developments that places those writers in context and describes the consequences of their ideas. This book provides a readable orientation to inform further study and an extensive bibliography with which to start.
A History of Strategy is published by Castalia House and available pretty much everywhere.
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