Fortifications and Siegecraft
Fortifications and Siegecraft

Author: Jeremy Black

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2018-05-25

Total Pages: 327

ISBN-13: 1538109697

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As centers for defense and bases for attack since ancient times, fortifications are a crucial aspect of military history. Indeed, as Jeremy Black shows, the history of fortifications is a global history of humanity itself. Moreover, their remains offer a still potent, often dramatic testimony to the past, notably through the strength of the sites, the power of the works, and the vast resources they required. This compelling book explores not only the history of fortifications themselves, but also the real and potential threat to them posed by siegecraft. Tracing the interaction of attack and defense over time, Black situates the evolution of fortifications within the wider development of governments, societies, and cultures. Moreover, his examination of the future of these installations, as well as of potential methods of destroying them, only reaffirms their omnipresence in human history—and their continued importance. Fortifications are not simply relics of the past, but rather elements fundamental to military and social interaction across the world today.

War in European History, 1660-1792
War in European History, 1660-1792

Author: Jeremy Black

Publisher: Potomac Books, Inc.

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 111

ISBN-13: 161234397X

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The books in the Essential Bibliographies series include an essay by a noted scholar on the important historiographical issues and a pertinent bibliography for a particular period or theme in military history. They serve as research tools for librarians, researchers, and readers with a professional interest and as a starting point for pursuing further studies. This title, the second in the series by Jeremy Black (War in European History, 1494-1660), fills the relative neglect of the time period between the age of military revolution and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. In Europe, both Austria and Russia had driven back the Ottoman Turks, and the fate of their empire--the "Eastern Question"--became an important issue in European power politics. Within Europe, no power in Western or Central Europe, despite major efforts by France and Austria, respectively, could match Russia's rise to dominance in Eastern Europe. By contrast, Britain won the struggle for European maritime superiority, decisively so in 1759, and that led to its success over France in the battle over transoceanic colonies. The War of American Independence (1775-83) eventually ranged around the world as well. Although the British lost the struggle to control the thirteen colonies, which became the independent United States of America, the British survived what, from 1778, also became a war with France, Spain, the Dutch, and leading Indian powers with most of their empire retained. War in European History, 1660-1792, covers it all.

Introduction to Global Military History
Introduction to Global Military History

Author: Jeremy Black

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-09-21

Total Pages: 423

ISBN-13: 042967161X

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Introduction to Global Military History provides a lucid and comprehensive account of military developments around the modern world from the eighteenth century up to the present day. Beginning with the background to the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary wars and ending with the recent conflicts of the twenty-first century, this third edition combines fully up-to-date global coverage with close analysis not only of the military aspects of war but also its social, cultural, political and economic dimensions and repercussions. The new edition includes a fully revised chapter on conflicts during the eighteenth century, updated coverage of events post-1990 and increased coverage of non-Western conflicts to provide a truly international account of the varied and changing nature of modern military history. Covering lesser-known conflicts as well as the familiar wars of history and illustrated throughout with maps, primary source extracts and case studies, it is essential reading for all students of modern military history and international relations.

Down the Warpath to the Cedars
Down the Warpath to the Cedars

Author: Mark R. Anderson

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 2021-04-15

Total Pages: 303

ISBN-13: 0806169974

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In May 1776 more than two hundred Indian warriors descended the St. Lawrence River to attack Continental forces at the Cedars, west of Montreal. In just three days’ fighting, the Native Americans and their British and Canadian allies forced the American fort to surrender and ambushed a fatally delayed relief column. In Down the Warpath to the Cedars, author Mark R. Anderson flips the usual perspective on this early engagement and focuses on its Native participants—their motivations, battlefield conduct, and the event’s impact in their world. In this way, Anderson’s work establishes and explains Native Americans’ centrality in the Revolutionary War’s northern theater. Anderson’s dramatic, deftly written narrative encompasses decisive diplomatic encounters, political intrigue, and scenes of brutal violence but is rooted in deep archival research and ethnohistorical scholarship. It sheds new light on the alleged massacre and atrocities that other accounts typically focus on. At the same time, Anderson traces the aftermath for Indian captives and military hostages, as well as the political impact of the Cedars reaching all the way to the Declaration of Independence. The action at the Cedars emerges here as a watershed moment, when Indian neutrality frayed to the point that hundreds of northern warriors entered the fight between crown and colonies. Adroitly interweaving the stories of diverse characters—chiefs, officials, agents, soldiers, and warriors—Down the Warpath to the Cedars produces a complex picture, and a definitive account, of the Revolutionary War’s first Indian battles, an account that significantly expands our historical understanding of the northern theater of the American Revolution.