New Release · Non-Fiction
Soldiers for Sale
The 2,500-Year History of Mercenaries
by Nick Razer
Thousands of years. Different flags. One profession. From the phalanxes of ancient Greece to the private military companies operating in today's conflict zones, hired warriors have shaped empires, toppled kings, and rewritten the borders of the modern world.
About the Book
In Soldiers for Sale, Nick Razer traces the 2,500-year evolution of the mercenary — the world's second-oldest profession — with unflinching clarity and street-level insight.
Razer moves from Xenophon's Ten Thousand marching out of Persia, through the Carthaginian armies of Hannibal, the Varangian Guard of Byzantium, the Italian condottieri, the Swiss pikemen who terrified Europe, the Hessians hired against the American Revolution, the French Foreign Legion, the Cold War "Dogs of War" in Africa, and into the modern era of Executive Outcomes, Blackwater, and the Wagner Group.
Along the way he confronts the questions governments would rather not answer: Who owns violence? What happens when war becomes a contract? And why has the mercenary always returned — no matter how many times the world tried to abolish him?
Meticulously researched and written with Razer's signature ground-level realism, Soldiers for Sale is the definitive people's history of the men who fought for money, loyalty, ideology, or simply because it was the only trade they knew.
For readers of military history, geopolitics, and anyone trying to understand the shadow industry that has never stopped shaping the world.
Inside the Book
2,500 Years of Hired War
From Xenophon's Ten Thousand to the Wagner Group — a continuous lineage of men who fought for coin instead of country.
Empires Built by Contract
Carthage, Byzantium, Renaissance Italy, colonial Africa, modern Iraq — mercenary labor has quietly shaped every era of geopolitics.
The Questions Nobody Answers
Who owns violence? What happens when war becomes a purchase order? Razer confronts what governments prefer to bury.
Street-Level History
Meticulously researched but written with Razer's trademark ground-level realism — a people's history of the trade of arms.
A Timeline of Hired War
- 5th c. BCEXenophon's Ten Thousand march out of Persia
- 3rd c. BCEHannibal's polyglot Carthaginian armies
- 10th–14th c.Varangian Guard and Byzantine steel
- 14th–16th c.Italian condottieri and Swiss pikemen
- 18th c.Hessians hired against the American Revolution
- 19th–20th c.The French Foreign Legion
- 1960s–90sCold War 'Dogs of War' across Africa
- 2000s–TodayExecutive Outcomes, Blackwater, Wagner Group
Get Your Copy
Available in paperback and Kindle. Ship it, download it, or hand it to the veteran in your life who's been waiting for someone to tell this story straight.