Dyer analyzes two centuries of world military history and defines the milestones along the road to total war: the birth of nationalism, conscription, the mobilization of large armies, the invention of the machine gun, tank and atomic bomb, and the deliberate killing of civilians. From Napoleon to Nagasaki, The Road to Total War charts how the social, economic and technological developments of the last two hundred years have made warfare so efficient that it can now destroy us all.