The Warfare in the Eighteenth Century (Smithsonian History of Warfare) by (PDF)

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⭐Jeremy Black wrote this work as part of the Cassell History of Warfare series edited by John Keegan. Unlike the other historians in the series who were assigned specific wars (i.e. WWI, WWII, American Civil War) or types of war (i.e. War in the Air 1914-1945, Napoleonic Wars) he had to cover a whole century on a global scale. He tackled this in an interesting fashion. Rather than focusing on battles or wars as many of his predecessors had done in their sweeping works (JFC Fuller’s Military History, etc.) He tried to take a mixed strategy. He first looks at the nature warfare among the different civilizations. He organizes the first three chapters along these lines: 1. War without Europeans, 2. Europeans versus Non-Europeans, 3. Transoceanic Conflict between Europeans. The remaining chapters deal with the American Revolution (a global war), wars within Europe, the importance of naval warfare – which allowed nations to fight on a global scale, and the developing background for Napoleonic innovations. It is admittedly still eurocentric, but Black acknowledges this and still does provide one of the few popular descriptions of warfare outside of Europe for this time period. It should give the reader a curiosity to read more. His bibliography is quite good, although more academic – and deserves attention by the reader. The 2nd and 3rd chapters give credence to the notion that perhaps the first “world war” was actually fought by the French and English empires of the 18th century (by Barbara Tuchman?). Though the armies were not always large, operations were planned and mounted around the globe. The text does read smoothly and there are several nice illustrations and maps. It is not without some faults as noted by the other reviewers, but the author should be given credit for the “degree of difficulty” of his task. It is a good addition to the libraries of military history buffs who are interested in the horse and musket era. It isn’t for the specialist American Revolution reader – not enough depth, but for those who are curious about that era, it will open your mind to considering that grand plans were plotted out in an era where it took weeks to months to position an army or fleet for operations.

⭐A good overview. Of particular interest due to my lack of knowledge was non-European events.

⭐Good overview, provides a good base for more detailed reading, if one wants to go into detail in a specific period.

⭐Fascinating.

⭐Used it for a US History term paper.

⭐A good summary of the global wars and military situations of the 1700’s, excellent for students or those only casually interested in the subject. I found the author’s deliberate (and politically correct) focus on the wider world (as opposed to just Europe and America) informative but also a little annoying. And a warning to potential buyers – there is a book out there with this same title and author, in a series called `Cassel’s History of Warfare’, that is the exact same title just a different cover, so if you already have one of these books don’t buy the other!

⭐The stated purpose of Cassell’s History of Warfare series is to provide a richly illustrated survey of, well, the history of warfare. Series editor John Keegan has assembled a team of distinguished historians to write this history. For the eighteenth century, he has chosen Jeremy Black, who is known for his support of the ‘Military Revolution’ thesis. In his introduction, Black makes it clear that military history has for too long been “Eurocentric”. He considers this unacceptable, and wishes to advance the cause of – for lack of a better term – multicultural military history. The resulting work is watered-down even by the standards of a general survey. Black argues that European military theory/practices were not universally followed. Thus, in his opening chapter “War Without Europeans”, Black narrates the Dsungar (a central Asian people) invasion of Tibet, describing the effectiveness of non-European tactics when applied between non-European cultures. Throughout the book he lists scores of obscure peoples, empires, and battles, all in an effort to buttress his thesis. You really get the sense that Black relishes his defiant stance against ‘conservative’ military history. He bashes Frederick the Great and the Prussians in a paragraph and a caption, and doesn’t even provide a map of the Seven Years’ War. But then he showers praise on Alaung-hpaya and the mighty Burmese army, even parcelling out a precious map of South-East Asia. Black’s thesis is faulty for several reasons. The first is his contention that non-European tactics are deserving of study on a wider scale because of their successful application by one non-European state against another. While this may be true within the context of a war between two South-East Asian states, when compared against the awesome effectiveness of European tactics, the former simply does not hold up. The second problem with Black’s thesis is his belief that a battle should be widely known simply because it was important to the participants, or that the bigger a battle is, the more it should be studied. All conflicts, whether they be between dozens of nomads for control of grazing land or between giant mechanized armies for control of industrial cities, are crucial and memorable to the participants involved. The question historians must ask (especially historians writing general histories encompassing whole centuries) is which conflict is more deserving of inclusion into the historical narrative. Since every military on Earth is modeled after the European one, the obvious choice is to strongly emphasize European military history, leaving non-European history to a separate volume.

⭐Good specialist writer but it is more general than I thought it would be. Good for students at under-graduate level

⭐This book gives only a brief overview of the conflicts of the times.The seven years war only gets one chapter.would have liked more details on tactics,formations and battles.

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