Rindis.com

Tom Pocock posits the Seven Years War as the first world war (an assertion that he’s not alone in, and that I can get behind), but his book on the subject doesn’t really develop this.

Instead, each chapter is about one of the various non-European campaigns of the war, and treats each one well, if almost purely from the British point of view. There is some discussion of the immediate planning behind these campaigns, but other than the simultaneous strikes at Havana and Manila, no discussion of how these fit into wider policy. In fact, there’s only a cursory amount of discussion of wider implications. There are some good discussions of immediate effects, but nothing overall.

As a series of small histories though, the book is very good. The writing is good, and the descriptions of the campaigns are fairly thorough considering the short format. Finally, there is some good tying together with thought as to how previous campaigns (most notably the failure at Minorca, and the subsequent execution of Admiral Byng for cowardice) affected later ones. This is a good introduction to the Seven Years War outside of Europe, and recommended for that, but it’s only an introduction, and a prior grounding the European side would help.