The book gives a number of articles on military issues of an outstanding figure in the German Social Democratic Party, later a communist, Franz Mehring. The articles in the book outline the entire history of military art, from ancient times to the beginning of the 19th century inclusive. Franz Mehring (1846-1919), a theorist of the German Left Social Democrats and one of the organizers of the Communist Party of Germany, well understood the importance of military knowledge, military equipment and military organization in the proletarian revolution.