"Michael Howard's ancestry, part Quaker, part German Jew, made him unpromising material for a commission in the Brigade of Guards. The three years he then spent with his regiment were equally inappropriate preparation for the university chairs that he went on to hold at London, Oxford and Yale. In this autobiography he describes how these varied strands in his life came together. First there was a childhood in a world of privilege almost as remote from today as is that of the Roman Antonines. Then there came war service in Italy, a mixture of terror, tedium and Lucullan enjoyment. Finally, he was to pursue an academic career in which he would pioneer the study, both of war as an aspect of 'total history', and of international relations in the nuclear age. In addition to holding the Regius Chair of Modern History at Oxford, he was to play a leading role in founding both the International Institute for Strategic Studies and the world-famous Department of War Studies at King's College London."--BOOK JACKET.