The book of the famous military historian and writer A.V. Shishov is devoted to military conflicts of the XX century, from the Boer War of 1899-1902 to the Chechen conflict in 1991-2006. It tells about all the significant interstate conflicts (the so-called local wars) of the past century, about civil wars, national liberation movements, rebellions, coups and religious and ethnic clashes in various countries of the world, in colonial and semi-colonial possessions.