Some recent histories are theoretical rather than straightforwardly narrative. Eminent 20th-century military historians wrote new histories of war discrete from the rise and decline of civilizations. A few from greatly varied times and locales produced traditions of strategic thought that retain influence. Classic works focused on optimum strategies and obstacles to operations in a given time and place. Each category may be subdivided into theory and works seeking a more empirical understanding.
General literature on war can be split into two types: classic works that any serious student of war must know, and contemporary works written during the 20th century. That is an arbitrary definition, not universally accepted or normally employed by historians. Social science literature defines a minimal threshold of mass political violence as war, as opposed to riot or other communal use of force, if deaths reach one thousand. War is also categorized by the types of weapons used to conduct it, as in the terms “conventional war” and “unconventional war.” A controversial distinction is made between limited war and total war, in which wars are typed by scope, the declared or discerned objectives of participants, and the degree to which militaries target civilians, enemy morale, or economic infrastructure. More general discourse sub-classifies war according to an ascending scale of participation-rebellion, insurrection, insurgency, guerrilla war, civil war, and regional war-culminating in three synonyms for armed conflict at the largest scale: systemic war, global war, and world war. Modern war is often defined as armed conflict within, between, or among states, although other political communities partake of war: ethnic and religious groups, ideological movements, terrorist organizations, large drug gangs, and other “non-state actors.” The narrowest meaning used by historians is war as the art and science and record of military operations.
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