War, History and Politics – serie

This is the first comprehensive one-volume overview of the diplomatic, military and maritime history of the causes and conduct of the Seven Years’ War and its American manifestation, the French and Indian War (1753-63). The Seven Years’ War was the first global conflict in history and a precursor to the American War of Independence. The authors summarize both older and more recent scholarship on these subjects, and synthesize them in a complete annotated bibliography. The book also includes biographical sketches and critical reappraisals of some of the major figures of the periodThe Seven Years War will be of great interest to students of the Seven Years War, American history, diplomatic and military history.

The Seven Years War has been described as the first global conflict in history. It engulfed the Euro-Atlantic world from 1756 to 1763, and engaged the energies of European cabinets as never before. More than previous conflicts, the Seven Years War involved a variety of approaches to war, and taxed the military, material and moral resources of the powers involved. Drawing on a diverse array of archival, printed primary and secondary sources, The Seven Years War: A Transatlantic History covers the war’s origins, its conduct on land and at sea, its effects on logistics and finance, its interactions with domestic politics, its influence on international relations and its approach to peace. The book highlights the role of personality, alongside the enduring importance of communication, misperception and understanding. In so doing, it endeavours not merely to chronicle the war’s events, but to situate them in the context of mid-eighteenth century warfare, finance, politics and diplomacy.The Seven Years War will be of great interest to students of the European history, American history, maritime history, diplomatic and military history.

This timely book provides a general overview of Great Power politics and world order from 1500 to the present. Jeremy Black provides several historical case-studies, each of which throws light on both the power in question and the international system of the period, and how it had developed from the preceding period. The point of departure for this book is Paul Kennedy’s 1988 masterpiece, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers. That iconic book, with its enviable mastery of the sources and its skilful integration of political, military and economic history, was a great success when it appeared and has justifiably remained important since. Written during the Cold War, however, Kennedy’s study was very much of its time in its consideration of the great powers in ‘Western’ terms, and its emphasis on economics. This book brings together strategic studies, international relations, military history and geopolitics to answer some of the contemporary questions left open by Professor Kennedy's great work, and also looks to the future of great power relations and of US hegemony. Great Powers and the Quest for Hegemony will be of great interest to students of international relations, strategic studies and international history.

This timely book provides a general overview of Great Power politics and world order from 1500 to the present. Jeremy Black provides several historical case-studies, each of which throws light on both the power in question and the international system of the period, and how it had developed from the preceding period. The point of departure for this book is Paul Kennedy’s 1988 masterpiece, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers. That iconic book, with its enviable mastery of the sources and its skilful integration of political, military and economic history, was a great success when it appeared and has justifiably remained important since. Written during the Cold War, however, Kennedy’s study was very much of its time in its consideration of the great powers in ‘Western’ terms, and its emphasis on economics. This book brings together strategic studies, international relations, military history and geopolitics to answer some of the contemporary questions left open by Professor Kennedy's great work, and also looks to the future of great power relations and of US hegemony. Great Powers and the Quest for Hegemony will be of great interest to students of international relations, strategic studies and international history.

This new volume examines the influence of trade and empire from 1689 to 1815, a crucial period for British foreign policy and state-building.Jeremy Black, a leading expert on British foreign policy, draws on the wide range of archival material, as well as other sources, in order to ask how far, and through what processes and to what ends, foreign policy served commercial and imperial goals during this period. The book is particularly interested in the conceptualization of these goals in terms of international competition, and how the contours and contents of this conceptualization altered during this period. Trade, Empire and British Foreign Policy, 1689-1815 also analyzes how the relationships between trade, empire and foreign policy were perceived abroad and how this contributed to an analysis of Britain as a distinctive state, and with what consequences. This book will be of much interest to students of British imperial history, diplomatic history and international history in general.

This book examines the creation of ‘national armies’ through compulsory military service in France and Prussia during the French Revolution and the Prussian Reform Period. The French Revolution tried to establish military and political structures in which the armed forces and society would merge. In order to ensure that the army would never become a means of oppression against the people, the whole population should thus ‘be’ the army. Defeated by the enormous military potential that these new political settings had unchained in France, Prussia adapted the French innovations to its own needs, thus laying the basis for its contributions to the victories of the coalition troops in 1813-15. Conscription had implications that went beyond the purely military sphere and involved assumptions about the nature of the state and its relationship to its citizens. It was the material basis of Napoleon’s campaigns and of the German ‘wars of national liberation’ of 1813-15, before becoming a cornerstone of the Prussian Reforms and the creation of a civil society ‘from above’. Military service has therefore been one of the most essential and contradictory institutions of the modern nation-state. Citizens, Soldiers and National Armies will be of interest to historians of modern Europe, military historians and students of intellectual history in general.

This book examines the language and the ideology of the Pax Romana, the Pax Britannica and the Pax Americana within the broader contexts of 'hegemony' and 'empire'. It addresses three main themes: a conceptual examination of the way in which hegemony has been justified; a linguistic study of how the notion of pax (usually translated as peace) has been used in ancient and modern times; and a study of the international orders created by Rome and Britain.Using an historiographical approach, the book draws upon texts from Greco-Roman antiquity, and sources from the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries to show how the pax ideology has served as a justification for hegemonic foreign policy, and as an intellectual exercise in power projection. From Tacitus' condemnation of what he described as 'creating a wilderness and calling it peace', to debates about the establishment of a Pax Americana in post-Saddam Hussein's Iraq, the book shows not only how the governing elite in each of the three hegemonic orders prescribed to a loose interpretation of the pax ideology, but also how their internal disagreements and different conceptualisations of pax have affected the process of 'empire-building'.This book will be of interest to students of international history, empire, and International Relations in general.

Written by leading historians and political scientists, this collection of essays offers a broad and comprehensive coverage of the role of war in American history.Addressing the role of the armed force, and attitudes towards it, in shaping and defining the United States, the first four chapters reflect the perspectives of historians on this central question, from the time of the American Revolution to the US wars in Vietnam and Iraq. Chapters five and six offer the views of political scientists on the topic, one in light of the global systems theory, the other from the perspective of domestic opinion and governance. The concluding essay is written by historians Fred Anderson and Andrew Cayton, whose co-authored book The Dominion of War: Empire and Liberty in North America, 1500-2000 provided the common reading for the symposium which produced these essays.America, War and Power will be of much interest to students and scholars of US military history, US politics and military history and strategy in general.

This new volume examines the influence of trade and empire from 1689 to 1815, a crucial period for British foreign policy and state-building.Jeremy Black, a leading expert on British foreign policy, draws on the wide range of archival material, as well as other sources, in order to ask how far, and through what processes and to what ends, foreign policy served commercial and imperial goals during this period. The book is particularly interested in the conceptualization of these goals in terms of international competition, and how the contours and contents of this conceptualization altered during this period. Trade, Empire and British Foreign Policy, 1689-1815 also analyzes how the relationships between trade, empire and foreign policy were perceived abroad and how this contributed to an analysis of Britain as a distinctive state, and with what consequences. This book will be of much interest to students of British imperial history, diplomatic history and international history in general.

Written by leading historians and political scientists, this collection of essays offers a broad and comprehensive coverage of the role of war in American history.Addressing the role of the armed force, and attitudes towards it, in shaping and defining the United States, the first four chapters reflect the perspectives of historians on this central question, from the time of the American Revolution to the US wars in Vietnam and Iraq. Chapters five and six offer the views of political scientists on the topic, one in light of the global systems theory, the other from the perspective of domestic opinion and governance. The concluding essay is written by historians Fred Anderson and Andrew Cayton, whose co-authored book The Dominion of War: Empire and Liberty in North America, 1500-2000 provided the common reading for the symposium which produced these essays.America, War and Power will be of much interest to students and scholars of US military history, US politics and military history and strategy in general.

This book examines the language and the ideology of the Pax Romana, the Pax Britannica and the Pax Americana within the broader contexts of 'hegemony' and 'empire'. It addresses three main themes: a conceptual examination of the way in which hegemony has been justified; a linguistic study of how the notion of pax (usually translated as peace) has been used in ancient and modern times; and a study of the international orders created by Rome and Britain.Using an historiographical approach, the book draws upon texts from Greco-Roman antiquity, and sources from the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries to show how the pax ideology has served as a justification for hegemonic foreign policy, and as an intellectual exercise in power projection. From Tacitus' condemnation of what he described as 'creating a wilderness and calling it peace', to debates about the establishment of a Pax Americana in post-Saddam Hussein's Iraq, the book shows not only how the governing elite in each of the three hegemonic orders prescribed to a loose interpretation of the pax ideology, but also how their internal disagreements and different conceptualisations of pax have affected the process of 'empire-building'.This book will be of interest to students of international history, empire, and International Relations in general.