How long does it take to read The Pursuit of Power?
technology, armed force, and society since A.D. 1000
William H. McNeill, Mcneill
The Pursuit of Power by William H. McNeill, Mcneill takes about 7 hours 38 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 7 hours 38 minutes
A weekend read
First published 1982. 416 pages, about 114,400 words.
16 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 12 hours 43 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 7 hours 38 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 4 hours 46 minutes |
The page count is the median across 9 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
"In this magnificent synthesis of military, technological, and social history, William H. McNeill explores a whole millennium of human upheaval and traces the path by which we have arrived at the frightening dilemmas that now confront us. McNeill moves with equal mastery from the crossbow -- banned by the Church in 1139 as too lethal for Christians to use against one another -- to the nuclear missile, from the sociological consequences of drill in the seventeenth century to the emergence of the military-industrial complex in the twentieth. His central argument is that a commercial transformation of world society in the eleventh century caused military activity to respond increasingly to market forces as well as to the commands of rulers. Only in our own time, suggests McNeill, are command economies replacing the market control of large-scale human effort. The Pursuit of Power does not solve the problems of the present, but its discoveries, hypotheses, and sheer breadth of learning do offer a perspective on our current fears and, as McNeill hopes, 'a ground for wiser action'."--Publisher description.
Subjects: Modern Military history, Military art and science, World politics, History, Medieval Military history, Poder Politico
