Warfare in the Eighteenth Century (Jeremy Black) lands on the shelves of my shop, where it will be found in my Military History section. priced at just £4.00!
London: Cassell, 1999, (First Edition) Hardback in dust wrapper.
Contains: Chronological tables [1]; Black & white drawings; Colour drawings; Maps; Colour frontispiece; Illustrated endpapers and blanks;
From the cover: In 1757 Alaung-hpaya stormed Pegu, uniting Burma under his rule. In the same year Frederick the Great of Prussia, fighting in what came to be known as the Seven Years War, defeated his French and Austrian opponents at Rossbach and Leuthen respectively. Both were important campaigns in the history of eighteenth-century warfare. Both are covered in this important and wide-ranging narrative by a leading authority in early modern warfare, which presents a full and fascinating picture of war both in Europe and elsewhere in the world at this time.
In eighteenth-century Europe warfare was widespread. Armies fought with flintlocks and bayonets, and in conflicts such as the Wars of European Succession and the Seven Years War success generally lay in speed and decisiveness. The tactical innovations of European leaders such as Marlborough and Frederick the Great made them figures who are still renowned today.
Yet the most successful military power in the world at the time was not European but Chinese, the largest land battles of the century occurring not in Prussia but in India. In 1717 Dsungar horsemen invaded Tibet and began the expansion of China to its greatest ever geographical extent. Between 1725 and 1745 the Afghan leader Nadir Shah invaded Persia and India using cavalry and camel-mounted swivel guns. And on the North American frontiers Native Americans were defeated through the settlers economic superiority and weight of numbers.
In this refreshingly non-Eurocentric book, Jeremy Black examines warfare on a global scale at a time when the face of war was beginning to change. He describes new technology, from the introduction of the socket bayonet to the invention of the elevating screw for cannon. He covers innovations such as the guerrilla tactics that defeated the British in the American War of Independence. And he describes in detail the changes in ideology that led to the French Revolution, a conflict that was to have effects lasting well into the next century.
In the Cassell History of Warfare series.
Very Good in Very Good Dust Wrapper. Price Clipped.
Matching Pictorial boards. 224 pages. Index. 10¾” x 8″.
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