Includes bibliographical references (pages 302-306) and index.
CONTENTS NOTE
Text of Note
Rewriting the history of war -- Soldiers, soldiers, soldiers -- War: when, where, why? -- 2 The Changing Art of War -- Pike and shot -- Cavalry -- Artillery and fortifications The spread of knowledge: specialization and professionalism The experience of conflict: siege and battle -- Constraints on war: the limits of the possble -- 3 Recruitment -- The methods -- The men -- The motives -- 4 Life and Death in the Armies -- Mortality and medicine -- The necessities of life -- Discipline and religion -- Prisoners -- The compensations of soldiering: women; comrades; an uncertain high-life -- The ex-soldier: militarization and the civilian world -- 5 The Impact of War -- The local effects -- Financing wars: winners and losers -- The state and war -- War and the economy -- Attitudes towards war.
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SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
This book takes a fresh approach to military history. Rather than looking at tactics and strategy, descriptions of campaigns and the technical side of warfare, it aims to set warfare in social and institutional contexts. Focusing on the early-modern period in western Europe, Frank Tallett gives an insight into what it must have been like to live and fight in the armies of the time. He shows how warfare had an impact on different social groups, on the economy and on patterns of settlement. He examines too the implications of war for the grotwh of state power, suggesting why some state proved much more successful than others at waging war.