War in an Age of Revolution, 1775-1815

by Roger Chickering, Stig Förster

Overview

This volume investigates a critical moment in the history of warfare. It assembles historians of the early modern and modern eras to speak to one another across the great historiographical divide that has traditionally separated them. The central questions in the volume have to do with the historical place of revolutionary warfare on both sides of the Atlantic – the degree to which they extended practices common in the eighteenth century or introduced fundamentally new forms of warfare. Among the topics covered in the volume are the global dimensions of warfare, logistics, universal military service and the mobilization of noncombattants, occupation, and the impact of war on civilian life in both Europe and North America.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521899963
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	02/08/2010
Series:	Publications of the German Historical Institute
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	434
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Roger Chickering is Professor of History at the BMW Center for German and European Studies, Georgetown University. His recent publications include The Great War and Urban Life in Germany: Freiburg, 1914–1918 (2007) and A World at Total War: Global Conflict and the Politics of Destruction, 1937–1945, co-edited with Stig Förster and Bernd Grenier.

Stig Förster is Professor of General Modern History at the University of Bern and has also taught at the University of Augsburg and held research fellowships at the German Historical Institutes in London and Washington D.C. His most recent publications include Der doppelte Militarismus. Die deutsche Heeresrüstungspolitik zwischen Status-quo-Sicherung und Aggression, 1890–1913 (1985) and Die mächtigen Diener der East India Company. Ursachen und Hintergründe der britischen Expansionspolitik in Südasien, 1793–1819 (1992).

Table of Contents

Introduction: a tale of two tales: grand narratives of war in the age of revolution Roger Chickering; Part I. Perspectives on a Military History of the Revolutionary Era: 1. What constituted the 'military revolution' of the early modern period? Azar Gat; 2. Guibert: prophet of total war? Beatrice Heuser; 3. Old or new? The French wars: toward a concept of evolutionary change Ute Planert; 4. Reluctant reformers, observant disciples: the Prussian military reforms, 1807–14 Dierk Walter; 5. The First World War: global dimensions of warfare in the age of revolutions, 1775–1815 Stig Förster; 6. 'The most terrible world war': Friedrich Gentz and the lessons of revolutionary war Günther Kronenbitter; Part II. The Growing Dimensions of Battle: 7. The Native American way of war in the age of revolutions, 1754–1814 Timothy J. Shannon; 8. The American militias: 'the garnish of a table?' Matthew C. Ward; 9. The logistics of revolutionary war in France Alan Forrest; 10. Revolt and repression in Napoleonic Italy, 1796–1814 Michael Broers; 11. Naval power in the revolutionary era Jeremy Black; 12. Partisan warfare in Spain and total war John Lawrence Tone; Part III. Civil Institutions and the Growing Scope of War: 13. Where have all the people gone?: reflections on popular political mobilization on the eve of American independence T. H. Breen; 14. Achilles' heel: slavery and war in the American Revolution Jörg Nagler; 15. Revolutionary France and the meanings of levée en masse Wolfgang Kruse; 16. Religion in a time of war: the case of lower Alsace (1789–94) Donatus Düsterhaus; 17. Military and masculinity: gendering the history of the French wars, 1792–1815 Karen Hagemann; 18. A tale of two cities: Washington and Baltimore during the War of 1812 Marion Breunig; 19. Lost neutrality and economic warfare Napoleonic warfare in northern Europe, 1795–1815 Katharine Aalestad; 20. War and everyday life in Britain Mary A. Favret.

Editorial Reviews

"An excellent historiographic review on the 'military revolution' of the early modern era, what it was and what its critics assert it was not, opens this collection." -Dieter K. Buse, Canadian Journal of History

From the Publisher