1st Edition

Western Warfare, 1775-1882

By Jeremy Black Copyright 2001
    224 Pages
    by Routledge

    224 Pages
    by Routledge

    This is a wide-ranging and comprehensive survey of warfare from the outbreak of the American War of Independence to the British conquest of Egypt. Drawing on both primary and secondary sources this book offers an unrivalled account of civil and international conflicts involving Western powers, integrating both naval and land warfare. This book covers military capability as well as conflict, social and political contexts as well as weaponry, tactics and strategy. As well as examining such major conflicts as the Napoleonic Wars, the Crimean War, the American Civil War and the Wars of German Unification, this book redresses the imbalance of previous treatments by examining other important conflicts, for example, those in Latin America, as well as insurgency and counter-insurgency in Europe. This book's global perspective provides for a more reliable assessment of what constitutes military capability. In so doing, the author challenges the technological determinism and linear conceptions of developments in military science that continue to characterise much of military history. Instead the author reveals a much more complex dynamic, indeed going so far as to question the idea of modernity itself. Bold in scope, and cutting-edge in its interpretations, this book offers much for the student, general reader and professional historian alike.

    Preface Introduction 1. Western Warfare in its Global Context, 1775-1815 2. Two Episodes of Modernity? The American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary Wars 3. Napoleon and His Opponents 4. Naval Power and Warfare 5. The Global Context, 1815-82 6. After Waterloo: Conflict Within the West, 1815-60 7. Conflict Within the West, 1861-82 8. Social and Political Contexts 9. Conclusions: Revisiting Modernity Notes Select Bibliography Index

    Biography

    Jeremy Black is Professor of History at the University of Exeter.