API tools faq
paste
Advertisement
jonstond2

Early Modern French Armies (Military History)

jonstond2
Jul 12th, 2017
657
0
Never
Add comment
Not a member of Pastebin yet? Sign Up, it unlocks many cool features!
text 91.94 KB | None | 0 0
raw download clone embed print report
  1. Introduction
  2. Historians who study the early modern French army are interested in a variety of different aspects of it in addition to traditional operational histories. Over the past several decades, the historiographical trend has included inquiries that explore the relationships between the French army and French culture, society, state-building, and colonialism, as well as its connections to Europe and the world in general. To accommodate these connections, this article is organized chronologically and thematically. It begins by looking at works that examine warfare in Europe as a whole from the religious wars that rocked all of Europe in the 16th century to the French Revolutionary wars of the late 18th century. This early modern period, situated between these two wars, stands out as a time when monarchs and officers attempted to restrict military activity to professional armies rather than involve civilian combatants whose personal investment in the outcome of a war had led to extreme violence and prolonged conflict. To explore this period of seemingly “limited” warfare, this article first moves chronologically, beginning with works on the more disjointed army that existed in France before the rule of Louis XIV (1562–1653), how the army became centralized during the reign of Louis XIV (1660–1715), and the status of the French army in the North American colonies (1500–1763) as well as during the Seven Years’ War (1756–1763), a conflict that proved to be a watershed for the French army. The following section presents information on reform in the French army following the Seven Years’ War (1750–1789), then French activity during the American Revolution (1775–1783), and finally the transition that took place in the army during the French Revolution (1787–1794). Following this roughly chronological account, the article turns to specific elements of the French army: soldiers; the French officer corps, made up almost exclusively of members of the French nobility; artillery, engineering, and French fortifications. Finally, the article considers thematic approaches to the French army that consider its relationship to atrocity, politics, philosophy (and the Enlightenment), and finally protest. Each of these subject areas will likely contain a mixture of operational histories, cultural histories, and social histories as well as “hybrid histories” that combine methodologies, as different French historians approach the same topic using a variety of methods. By looking at the French army from these different angles, the reader will be better able to untangle the many cultural, social, political, and theoretical elements that made up the French army or affected its performance on the battlefield.
  3. Primary Sources
  4. For those interested in pursuing primary research in French history, several resources are available. The Service Historique de la Défense, based in Vincennes, France, just outside of Paris, oversees the major archives for French military services. Information on their location, hours, indexes, and means of requesting materials is available in French and English. In the United States, the library of the Society of the Cincinnati in Washington, D.C., houses an impressive array of rare books on the French army, including original editions and some manuscripts, from the 17th through the 18th centuries. A good online source would also be Eighteenth Century Collections Online, a database available through most major university research libraries. For published primary sources, Louvois 2007 is one of the best (and most recently republished) sources on the military under Louis XIV, when the army became more centralized under the king’s authority. Saxe 1971 (first published in 1757) presents a critical perspective on the French army through the eyes of one of its most celebrated generals. The authors Servan de Gerbey 1780 (first published in 1757) and Guibert 1977 were active duty officers and men of letters, applying Enlightenment ideas to army organization. Laclos 1786, also a marriage of Enlightenment and military thinking, represents a transition in how French engineers approached fortifications. The Encyclopédie Militaire (1770–1772), separate from Diderot’s famous Encyclopédie, served as a reference for army officers. Noailles 1791 shows some accommodation, regarding tactics and training, to the new approach in the army beginning in the French Revolution. Powers 2006 also provides a useful bibliography for those interested in pursuing primary research on the 18th-century French and British armies.
  5. Comte de Noailles. Instruction pour les gardes nationales, arrêtée par le comité militaire, et imprimée par ordre de l’Assemblée national du premier janvier 1791. Paris: de l’Imprimerie Nationale, 1791.
  6. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  7. The Comte de Noailles, a high-ranking noble in the French army and friend of Lafayette, here presents his methods of organizing and training the relatively new National Guard, born the day after the fall of the Bastille in July 1789.
  8. Find this resource:
  9. Encyclopédie Militaire, par une Société d’Anciens Officiers et de Gens de Lettres. Paris: Valade, 1770–1772.
  10. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  11. This was a periodical that lasted from 1770 to 1772, with articles on important military personnel, military history (including relevant stories from the ancient Greeks and Romans), and recommended reading.
  12. Find this resource:
  13. Guibert, Jacques-Antoine Hippolyte, comte de. “Essai Général de Tactique.” In Écrits militaires. Edited by Henri Ménard. Paris: Copernic, 1977.
  14. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  15. This is one of the most famous French military treatises. It contains vivid descriptions of a French citizen army before it became a reality as well as a lengthy section on tactics, weighing in on the debate of the time between ordre profond and ordre mince.
  16. Find this resource:
  17. Laclos, Choderlos. Lettre à Messieurs de l’Académie Française sur l’éloge de M. le Maréchal de Vauban, proposé pour sujet du prix d’éloquence de l’année 1787. Paris: Chez Durand, 1786.
  18. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  19. Laclos, a French artillery officer perhaps most famous as the author of Dangerous Liaisons argues here that French engineers must move beyond the shadow of Vauban and explore new methods of fortification.
  20. Find this resource:
  21. Louvois, marquis de. Lettres de Louvois à Louis XIV, 1679–1691. Edited and translated by Nicole Salat and Thierry Sarmant. Paris: Société de l’histoire de la France, 2007.
  22. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  23. This is a collection of letters between the marquis de Louvois, Louis XIV’s minister of war, and the king himself.
  24. Find this resource:
  25. Powers, Sandra. “Studying the Art of War: Military Books Known to American Officers and Their French Counterparts during the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century.” Journal of Military History 70 (July 2006): 781–814.
  26. DOI: 10.1353/jmh.2006.0187Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  27. Powers provides lists and contexts for much of the reading of the 18th-century military elite. She provides not only titles and summaries, but also where to find these works.
  28. Find this resource:
  29. Saxe, Maurice, comte de. Reveries, or Memoirs upon the Art of War. Translated by Unknown. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1971.
  30. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  31. First published in 1757. Maurice de Saxe is one of the most heralded generals of the old regime. In this book, he uses ancient Romans as a yardstick for measuring the French army in its effectiveness, especially in the recruiting and training of soldiers.
  32. Find this resource:
  33. Servan de Gerbey. Le soldat citoyen. Neuchâtel, Switzerland: s.n., 1780.
  34. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  35. Often misattributed to Guibert, Le soldat citoyen was one of the more important military treatises at the end of the old regime that foreshadowed the drastic changes in the army that occurred in the French Revolution. Available at Google books.
  36. Find this resource:
  37. Service Historique de la Défense. Vincennes, France.
  38. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  39. This is the website for the major French military archives. The website is available in French and English, and you can use it to make reservations, ask for research assistance, or browse call numbers.
  40. Find this resource:
  41. Society of the Cincinnati. Washington, DC.
  42. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  43. This is the catalog for the Society of the Cincinnati archive and library. In addition to documents on the history of the society and the American Revolution, there is a substantial collection of 17th- and 18th-century rare books and letters.
  44. Find this resource:
  45. French Army and Europe
  46. While each country in early modern Europe had its own peculiarities in how it approached warfare, all of their approaches stemmed from the same basic understanding of how to wage war. When studying the French army, it is important to keep in mind that it fought in a larger European setting, mostly against foes who subscribed to the same beliefs regarding training, maneuvers, combat protocol, victory, defeat, and surrender. Therefore, the books in this section constitute some of the more useful general histories on warfare and Europe during the early modern period and all focus to some extent on social change. Anderson 1988 makes a general case for the contributions of armies to state building, whereas Corvisier 1979 has a sharper focus on military contributions to the economies of nations. Howard 1976 considers more “human” or social aspects of European warfare. Starkey 2003 is also a good introduction for students on the relationship between War and Philosophy. Most of these works move in chronological order, explaining the major military figures and battles as well as their effects on European warfare, diplomacy, and society. Strachan 1983 considers the importance of Enlightenment-era warfare in the following centuries. Duffy 1987 is perhaps the most essential work for readers new to studying warfare in this period; Duffy’s book is like a readable encyclopedia that examines the individual elements of an early modern European army. Both Black 2002, a thorough synthesis, and Chagniot 2001, a well-rounded work that considers multiple angles on the army, take a more global perspective, including interactions between the French army and non-European forces.
  47. Anderson, Matthew S. War and Society in Europe of the Old Regime, 1618–1789. London: Fontana, 1988.
  48. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  49. Anderson focuses on the social changes in Europe during the Old Regime that were necessitated by changes in the approach to warfare. Larger armies required greater state involvement in raising and organizing funds, which Anderson argues served to stimulate the economy to some degree.
  50. Find this resource:
  51. Black, Jeremy. European Warfare, 1494–1660. New York: Routledge, 2002.
  52. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  53. Black provides a more global narrative of warfare in Europe during this period, while providing cultural and social context that takes this book beyond, while still including, operational military history. He also makes use of and evaluates Geoffrey Parker’s “military revolution thesis.
  54. Find this resource:
  55. Chagniot, Jean. Guerre et société à l’époque moderne. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2001.
  56. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  57. Chagniot looks at the relationships among war, the sovereigns who declare it, the army that wages it, and the society that suffers from it, during the Old Regime. He includes European conflicts with the Ottoman Empire, as well as a case study on war and society in France.
  58. Find this resource:
  59. Corvisier, André. Armies and Societies in Europe, 1494–1789. Translated by Abigail T. Siddall. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1979.
  60. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  61. After a very brief overview of late medieval European warfare, Corvisier discusses the civilian and administrative control over armies and how they became a crucial part of national economies. He also discusses the creation of a separate “military society” in the mid-18th century.
  62. Find this resource:
  63. Duffy, Christopher. The Military Experience in the Age of Reason. New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1987.
  64. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  65. Duffy’s book serves as an “introduction” of sorts to armies of the 18th century. He breaks them down in terms of who participated in warfare, where they came from, and how they were trained as well as how battles, sieges, and other elements of combat were conducted.
  66. Find this resource:
  67. Howard, Michael. War in European History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976.
  68. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  69. This is an enlightening synthesis of studies of warfare in Europe, but which analyzes military history largely in how it relates to “human aspects”—focusing more on government and society than technical aspects.
  70. Find this resource:
  71. Starkey, Armstrong. War in the Age of Enlightenment, 1700–1789. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003.
  72. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  73. Starkey examines the dialogue between Enlightenment texts, texts that debate what constitutes a “just war,” and actual changes in the practices of combat. His work culminates with the Battle of Fontenoy in 1745, and he then puts European warfare in the larger context of Asian, African, and North American warfare.
  74. Find this resource:
  75. Strachan, Hew. European Armies and the Conduct of War. London: George Unwin & Allen, 1983.
  76. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  77. This synthesis argues that the essence of 18th-century warfare—armies fighting at the behest of royal figures for limited territorial, political, or economic gains—has informed warfare though the 19th and 20th centuries.
  78. Find this resource:
  79. Pre-Louis XIV
  80. Before Louis XIV’s centralization efforts, the French army operated in a much more scattered fashion, with parts of the army working under the command of different nobles for different purposes. The books in this section examine this ad hoc army during some of the major conflicts in the 16th century and earlier, including the religious wars and the Fronde. Knecht 1994 provides a good glimpse of earlier “Renaissance” warfare and can provide a useful point of comparison for the later style. Wood 1996 provides a very comprehensive work on the army as a whole during the religious wars, whereas Ranum 1993 has useful background information on the wider religious wars. Knecht 2000 goes into greater detail on each separate battle. Parrott 2006 provides encyclopedic knowledge on the army under Richelieu, while Sandberg 2010 is best for its detail on the equipment and routine of the early modern French army. Potter 2008 provides a thorough account of the army during the Renaissance, and Potter 1996 exposes the importance of German mercenaries to French military success on the European continent. Lynn 1985 places the French army at the center of the “military revolution” debate.
  81. Knecht, Robert J. Renaissance Warrior and Patron: The Reign of Francis I. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
  82. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  83. This work is a revised version of his earlier book on Francis I, published in 1982. Here, Knecht updates the literature on the topic, and he responds to criticism. In both works, though, Knecht analyzes Francis I not only as the “Renaissance king” of France, but he also examines his impact in military matters.
  84. Find this resource:
  85. Knecht, Robert J. The French Civil Wars, 1562–1598. New York: Longman, 2000.
  86. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  87. Knecht’s book takes the reader through the battles themselves, and he tackles the question of why peace settlements “proved so short-lived.” The book has a narrative structure but delves deeply into each religious war in France.
  88. Find this resource:
  89. Lynn, John. “Tactical Evolution in the French Army, 1560–1660.” French Historical Studies 14.2 (1985): 176–191.
  90. DOI: 10.2307/286581Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  91. Lynn contributes to the ongoing scholarly discussions on the “military revolution” by focusing on the tactical changes in France during the early modern period, which he argues should take center stage in the debate, and how they fit into the larger European framework.
  92. Find this resource:
  93. Parrott, David. Richelieu’s Army. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
  94. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  95. Parrott argues that the highly decentralized state of the French military during the administration of Richelieu might have been the very characteristic of the military that allowed it to conform to the type of warfare required of it during the 17th century.
  96. Find this resource:
  97. Potter, David. “International Mercenary Market in the Sixteenth Century: Anglo-French Competition in Germany, 1543–1550.” English Historical Review 111.440 (1996): 24–58.
  98. DOI: 10.1093/ehr/CXI.440.24Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  99. Potter sheds light on England’s struggle to compete with France on the European continent in the 16th century through studying both French and English reliance on German mercenaries. He argues that England’s presence grew stronger as it learned how to better recruit and use mercenaries.
  100. Find this resource:
  101. Potter, David. Renaissance France at War: Armies, Culture, and Society, c. 1480–1560. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell, 2008.
  102. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  103. Potter provides a well-rounded description of war during the French Renaissance, from operational history and battles descriptions to their appearance in poetry. He places warfare during this time in its own context, especially concerning the scale, expense, and, therefore in some ways, the achievements of the French army.
  104. Find this resource:
  105. Ranum, Orest. The Fronde: A French Revolution, 1648–1652. New York: W.W. Norton, 1993.
  106. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  107. While many established histories of the Fronde focus mainly on the role of the judges in the parlements, Ranum’s account restores many of the military aspects of this conflict to the general narrative. His chapter on “The Winter Wars of 1649” describes the army’s role, even among the nobility of the robe.
  108. Find this resource:
  109. Sandberg, Brian. Warrior Pursuits: Noble Culture and Civil Conflict in Early Modern France. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010.
  110. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  111. This book provides useful nuts and bolts information on preparation for and execution of conflicts and fighting in 17th-century southern France. Sandburg’s larger argument speaks to a culture of honor motivating noble officers, and his thesis could be useful for those interested in early modern masculinity.
  112. Find this resource:
  113. Wood, James B. The King’s Army: Warfare, Soldiers, and Society during the Wars of Religion in France, 1562–1576. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
  114. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511584824Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  115. Wood examines the royal army during the earlier civil wars of the French Wars of Religion and argues that it continually failed to defeat the Huguenot forces not because of religious conviction but because of entrenched military problems that caused repeated failure for the French army.
  116. Find this resource:
  117. The Wars of Louis XIV
  118. As European armies relied increasingly on a large infantry and consequently grew in size, they required more money and more of a “national effort” to support, which not only necessitated, but also contributed to increased centralization of the state, especially in France. Historians still debate the nature of this centralizing process and how it affected power relationships among nobles and between nobles and the monarch, a topic on which Rowlands 2002 focuses through the lens of the French army. As part of the state-building effort, the king and his ministers of war, Le Tellier and Louvois, organized and centralized the army under his control, simultaneously building a large, complicated bureaucracy to help administer it, which both Doyle 1996 and Wolf 1974 address, even if their works are not wholly on the French army. Cornette 1993 argues that this process increased the importance of warfare to French noble officers, who needed to display their skills in combat in order to impress the monarch. Sonnino 1988 provides an in-depth, wittily written example of Louis XIV’s use of warfare for personal or domestic purposes. Lynn 1999 provides an excellent overview of Louis XIV’s wars as well as the concept of “war as process” by which to consider them, whereas Lynn 1997, in addition to arguing about war and state building, provides every minute detail of Louis XIV’s army that scholars could wish to know. Drevillon 2005 shows what this army looked like from the perspective of the officers.
  119. Cornette, Joël. Le roi de guerre: Essai sur la souveraineté dans la France du Grande Siècle. Paris: Bibliothèque Historique de Payot, 1993.
  120. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  121. Cornette’s essay looks at war and state building through the concept of a “warrior king” as necessary for the practice and legitimacy of sovereignty. From the Thirty Years’ War to the end of Louis XIV’s reign, war was not only practiced on the battlefield, but also served to advance the gloire of Louis.
  122. Find this resource:
  123. Doyle, William. Venality: The Sale of Offices in Eighteenth Century France. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
  124. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  125. Doyle discusses the rise of venality, which is the purchase of offices by officeholders, especially during the reign of Louis XIV to finance his wars. As the number of offices for sale grew, the less they actually contributed to financing wars, yet this bureaucracy grew too big to terminate.
  126. Find this resource:
  127. Drevillon, Hervé. L’impôt de sang: Le métier des armes sous Louis XIV. Paris: Tallandier, 2005.
  128. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  129. This work looks at war from the perspective of the officers who needed war in order to advance their career. Louis XIV made his officers compete to serve him militarily, but even the organization of the army was insufficient for classifying men in terms of birth, honor, and courage.
  130. Find this resource:
  131. Lynn, John. Giant of the Grande Siècle: The French Army, 1610–1715. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
  132. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511572548Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  133. This encyclopedic work covers nearly every aspect of the French army from Henri IV through the reign of Louis XIV, but it focuses especially on the relationship between the state and the army as the state becomes more centralized. The book also challenges and revises previous ideas on modernity and the army.
  134. Find this resource:
  135. Lynn, John. The Wars of Louis XIV, 1667–1714. New York: Longman, 1999.
  136. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  137. Building on Joel Cornette’s essay, Lynn looks at the wars of Louis XIV as essential to his nobles, his reign, and his glory. In addition to providing accounts of all of Louis XIV’s wars, Lynn examines “war as process” and Louis’s reliance on violence to resolve international and domestic issues.
  138. Find this resource:
  139. Rowlands, Guy. The Dynastic State and the Army under Louis XIV: Royal Service and Private Interest, 1661 to 1701. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
  140. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511496882Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  141. Looks at the army as an element of state building and focuses on the personal relationships between officers and the government as the author tries to understand the nature of power and personality. This book is important in acquiring not only an understanding of the army, but also the nature and form of absolutism.
  142. Find this resource:
  143. Sonnino, Paul. Louis XIV and the Origins of the Dutch War. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
  144. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  145. Sonnino focuses on the French government during the Dutch war, and he presents a diplomatic and bureaucratic look at why Louis XIV declared war on the nonthreatening Dutch republic and how Louis XIV tried to manipulate people and events to create a particular kind of war.
  146. Find this resource:
  147. Wolf, John B. Louis XIV. New York: W.W. Norton, 1974.
  148. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  149. This is a large and well-rounded biography of Louis XIV, but Wolf makes important observations and arguments about the gradual bureaucratization of the French army over the course of the king’s reign. Originally published in 1968.
  150. Find this resource:
  151. French Forces in North America
  152. The French line army did not always fight in Europe, nor was it the only French land force. The troupes de la marine, which served under the jurisdiction of the minister of the marine (as did the French navy), usually intervened in the event of conflict in the French colonies. In the case of French Canada or Louisiana in North America, the troupes de la marine became so immersed in the North American landscape that, as Balvay 2006 shows, they adopted many techniques used by Amerindians and French Canadians. Jacquin 1987 argues that the elite woodsmen, the coureurs du bois, were especially close to Amerindians. When the French army arrived in North America for the first time during the Seven Years’ War, it found a severe cultural and military disconnect between itself and both the Canadians and the troupes de la marine. Eccles is perhaps the most dominant author on the French in North America. Eccles 1990 provides a general overview, whereas Eccles 1969 provides a valuable study though the lens of the Canadian frontier. The first several chapters in Nicolai 1992 beautifully capture the eerie experience of French officers first setting foot in North America. All of these works are necessary to understanding the difficulties encountered by the French army in America and in its interactions with the various groups found there during the Seven Years’ War. The website French Louisiana, 1682–1803 provides reliable information, maps, images, and primary sources for those undertaking undergraduate research or professors preparing for lectures.
  153. Balvay, Arnaud. L’épée et la plume: Amérindiens et soldats des troupes de la marine en Louisiane et au Pays d’en Haut, 1683–1763. Quebec City, PQ: Presses de l’Université de Laval, 2006.
  154. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  155. Balvay argues that rather than make Amerindian allies more susceptible to fighting alongside French forces in European-style combat, Amerindians influenced the troupes de la marine to fight “Indian” style, supporting the theory that French soldiers were “savage-ified” in North America.
  156. Find this resource:
  157. Eccles, William J. The Canadian Frontier, 1534–1760. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1969.
  158. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  159. Eccles divides his history of Canada into the “Trade Frontier” the “Imperial Frontier,” and the “Military Frontier,” while recasting important figures for the Seven Years’ War, such as the Marquis de Montcalm, and focusing on oft-unexamined groups, such as merchants.
  160. Find this resource:
  161. Eccles, William J. France in America. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1990.
  162. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  163. A general survey that examines the French presence in North America, arguing that British and eventually American dominance of that continent was never inevitable. This work is an excellent synthesis of scholarship on the subject.
  164. Find this resource:
  165. French Louisiana, 1682–1803.
  166. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  167. This site is run by the French government and is available in French or English. It provides time lines, biographies, accounts of major events, and primary sources, especially images and maps, including accounts of French military involvement in Amerindian wars.
  168. Find this resource:
  169. Jacquin, Philippe. Les Indiens blancs: Français et Indiens en Amérique du Nord, XVIe–XVIIIe siècle. Paris: Payot, 1987.
  170. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  171. This book examines the coureurs de bois—the men born in France or Canada living in New France from the 16th through the 18th centuries, who, free of any kind of royal or colonial overseer, roamed the woods and, with the help of Amerindians, acquired beaver pelts. The author also treats their relationships with Amerindian societies.
  172. Find this resource:
  173. Nicolai, Martin Lathe. “Subjects and Citizens: French Officers and the North American Experience, 1755–1783.” PhD. diss., Queen’s University, 1992.
  174. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  175. Nicolai examines the behavior and attitudes of French officers in North America, first, during the Seven Years’ War and, later, during the American Revolution, and he concludes that the differences he uncovers show that the French officers were affected by the French Enlightenment.
  176. Find this resource:
  177. The Seven Years’ War
  178. The Seven Years’ War proved to be a major turning point for the French army. Expecting to win the war quickly and without much difficulty, instead France endured humiliating defeats in all theaters of the war, including the seas. Beginning in 1756 with the Battle of Minorca in the Mediterranean, this war is often referred to as the “first world war” since it involved conflicts in North America, Europe, and Asia. Crouch 2007 offers a much-needed perspective on the French army and its difficulties in maintaining French honor in North America as well as a heavily detailed narrative of the North American war. Eccles 1987 provides a different perspective on the French army’s failure there. Dorn 1940 provides a clear, concise overview of the war, especially in Europe, and it fits well with Kennett 1967, an intense study of precisely how the French army operated in the European theater. Because the French navy, or rather its difficulties, proved key in the French loss of the Seven Years’ War, Dull 2005 is especially useful, though it is also a solid diplomatic history. France’s humiliating loss of this war led to an intense period of reform for the French army, but, as Bell 2002 and Dziembowski 1998 argue, this war also nurtured and encouraged French patriotism as never before. Because the Seven Years’ War forced French thinkers and writers to contend with contradictions and problems in society as well as in the army, it could be argued that 1763—the year that marked the end of the Seven Years’ War—constituted a greater watershed moment in French history than 1789.
  179. Bell, David A. “Jumonville’s Death: War Propaganda and National Identity in Eighteenth-Century France.” In The Age of Cultural Revolutions: Britain and France, 1750–1820. Edited by Colin Jones and Dror Wahrman, 33–61. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.
  180. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  181. Bell looks at the upsurge in patriotism and anti-British sentiment in France as a result of the 1754 affair at “Jumonville’s Glenn,” in which a French officer was killed. Writers used the episode to rally French sentiment for war against the apparently “unjust” English.
  182. Find this resource:
  183. Crouch, Christian. “Imperfect Reflections: New France’s Use of Indigenous Violence and the Crisis of French Empire during the Seven Years’ War, 1754–1760.” PhD diss., New York University, 2007.
  184. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  185. Crouch provides a comprehensive account of the French army in North America during the Seven Years’ War, and she argues that French officers willingly gave the colony over to British forces rather than fight in a way, used by many in North America, that compromised their honor.
  186. Find this resource:
  187. Dorn, Walter. Competition for Empire: 1740–1763. New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1940.
  188. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  189. This classic considers Europe leading up to and during the Seven Years’ War. Dorn traces the relationship among war, state building, and society as well as the balancing of power, the connections between commerce and empire, the role of the Enlightenment, and finally the prominent battles of the Seven Years’ War.
  190. Find this resource:
  191. Dull, Jonathan. The French Navy and the Seven Years’ War. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2005.
  192. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  193. An all-encompassing political, diplomatic, and military history of the Seven Years’ War that provides a global perspective. The work also incorporates more recent social and cultural histories, thereby updating the typical “diplomatic” approach. It does give due attention to the French navy, but it is more than its title suggests.
  194. Find this resource:
  195. Dziembowski, Edmund. Un nouveau patriotisme français: La France face à la puissance anglaise à l’époque de la Guerre de Sept Ans. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 1998.
  196. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  197. Dziembowski argues that the Seven Years’ War, not the French Revolution, saw the birth of modern patriotism. During the war, mere distain for England turned to Anglophobia. In having to rectify the loss of that war to themselves, the French invented modern, even democratic, patriotic ideas.
  198. Find this resource:
  199. Eccles, William J. “The Battle of Quebec: A Reappraisal.” In Essays on New France. By William J. Eccles, 125–133. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1987.
  200. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  201. Eccles retells the Battle of Quebec, and he positions the Marquis de Montcalm and General Wolfe as “villains,” highlighting Montcalm’s command mistakes and misuse of the Canadian militia and Governor-General Vaudreuil as the great unsung hero, who is later blamed for the loss in France.
  202. Find this resource:
  203. Kennett, Lee. The French Armies in the Seven Years’ War. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1967.
  204. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  205. A small volume that encompasses the whole of French military administration during the Seven Years’ War, including logistics, pay, recruiting, communication, supply, and organization of elites in higher ranks and bureaucratic offices, among others. An excellent reference to have on hand; provides great detail.
  206. Find this resource:
  207. Reform Post-1750
  208. The loss of the Seven Years’ War proved to be a crucial turning point for the French army, and it spawned a great deal of reforms in the army. Blaufarb 2001 explains how French military administration during and immediately after the Seven Years’ War hindered officers from competently commanding their troops, and the work also provides insight into the relationship between officers and soldiers. As discussed primarily in Latreille 1914, still an authority on French army reform, ministers of war circulated through their positions rather quickly, as changes they made in the operations of the French officer corps necessarily affected the policies governing the French nobles who occupied the officers’ posts. On the one hand, these ministers needed to reduce the budget of the French army and find ways to increase the competence of the officers. On the other hand, any change they instituted that effected noble privilege would be heavily contested by court nobles. Léonard 1958 is a standard work, as well, in treating the difficulty of reforming the French army and society, as most writers of the time considered the two to be directly related; the corruption of one guaranteed the corruption of the other. The Duc de Choiseul proved to be one of the more important ministers of war during this period of reform, and Butler 1980 is worth perusing for details on Choiseul’s life and career. The tensions induced in reform of the officer corps culminated in the Ségur Resolution of 1781, which stated that all officers in the French army had to come from families that carried noble titles for at least four generations. The trend early in the 20th century had been to view the Ségur Resolution as a “noble reaction” to the increased attempts at making society more equal. Bien 2010 is paramount for understanding the Ségur Resolution, and the author argues that rather than a noble reaction, the resolution constituted a professionalizing measure. His interpretation is now considered standard. The Council of War, which met from 1787 to 1789 and aimed to make lasting reforms in the French army, climaxed with creation of a two-track system of promotions for French officers; some would be destined for the higher ranks, whereas the others could not expect to exceed the rank of lieutenant colonel. As discussed in Blaufarb 2002, this measure created a rupture in the French army as the country headed toward revolution.
  209. Bien, David D., Rafe Blaufarb, and Jay Smith. Caste, Class and Profession in Old Regime France: The French Army and the Ségur Reform of 1781. St Andrews, Scotland: Centre for French History and Culture at the University of St. Andrews, 2010.
  210. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  211. Many consider the Ségur Resolution of 1781, which restricted the officer corps to nobles whose lineage stretched back four generations, as an “aristocratic reaction” to the loosening of some of the privileges, but Bienargue this was really part of a larger professionalizing attempt to restore the army to its previous effectiveness. Originally published as “La réaction aristocratique avant 1789: L’exemple de l’armée,” in Annales, E.S.C. 29 (1974): 23–48, 505–534.
  212. Find this resource:
  213. Blaufarb, Rafe. “Noble Privilege and Absolutist State Building: French Military Administration after the Seven Years’ War.” French Historical Studies 24 (2001): 223–246.
  214. DOI: 10.1215/00161071-24-2-223Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  215. This article reveals how private administration in the French army before 1763 inhibited officers from fulfilling their duties because of expense, fear of desertion, and lack of training and discipline. Blaufarb also discusses the reactions to Choiseul’s decision that the government would take over administrative duties.
  216. Find this resource:
  217. Blaufarb, Rafe. The French Army, 1750–1820: Careers, Talent, Merit. New York: Manchester University Press, 2002.
  218. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  219. Blaufarb traces the French army from its attempts during the Old Regime to professionalize and open up careers to men based on merit to the fulfillment of these goals under Napoleon. His chapter on the Old Regime is particularly valuable for its discussion of the Ségur Resolution and military reform.
  220. Find this resource:
  221. Butler, Rohan d’Olier. Choiseul: Father and Son, 1719–1754. Oxford: Clarendon, 1980.
  222. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  223. A lengthy work on the early life of the Count de Stainville, who became the Duc de Choiseul when he was appointed minister of foreign affairs in 1758, then later minister of war, in which he reorganized the French army and oversaw much-needed reform.
  224. Find this resource:
  225. Latreille, Albert. L’armée et la nation à la fin de l’ancien régime. Paris: Chapelot, 1914.
  226. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  227. This text is one of the standards on military reform and the ministers of war. Latreille traces carefully, and with great detail, every pendulum-swinging reform made in the French army up to the French Revolution.
  228. Find this resource:
  229. Léonard, Émile G. L’armée et ses problèmes au XVIIIe siècle. Paris: Librairie Plon, 1958.
  230. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  231. This work is also a standard, discussing the difficulties, socially and militarily, of reforming the French army. It begins by talking about difficulties of military administration under Louis XIV and goes until the French Revolution.
  232. Find this resource:
  233. The American Revolution
  234. French participation in the American Revolution is important for two major reasons. On the one hand, French support and military participation proved crucial to the American victory. On the other hand, the American Revolution provided the first opportunity for the French army to deploy on the international stage since its disastrous loss in all theaters of the Seven Years’ War. After years of unofficial support through sending money and supplies, in 1778 France finally entered into an alliance with the struggling American colonies and declared war on Britain. The French hastened to send a land army and, most importantly, their navy, but it wasn’t until 1780 that Rochambeau landed in Rhode Island with several thousand troops. Bodinier and Lasseray 1982 provides encyclopedic knowledge about each French officer who served in America, whereas Kennett 1977 explains precisely how the French army operated in North America. Unger 2002 provides a detailed but readable account of Lafayette, who was one of many French volunteers who served with the American army and reported directly to George Washington. de Ganot 1977 and Rice and Brown 1972 constitute translated primary source accounts written by French officers in America. These sources would be useful for undergraduate research or teaching.
  235. Bodinier, Gilbert, Dictionnaire des officiers de l’Armée Royale qui ont combattu aux Etats-Unis pendant la guerre de l’Indépendance, 1776–1783. Vincennes, France: Ministère de la Défense, État-Major de l’Armée de Terre, Service Historique, 1982.
  236. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  237. Aptly titled, this is a dictionary that records data on every officer who served in America, either in Rochambeau’s army or as a volunteer. This volume also cites call numbers from the Archives de la Défense in Vincennes, and it serves as an excellent starting point for research at that archive.
  238. Find this resource:
  239. de Ganot, Louis de Récicourt. “Voyage au continent américain par un Français en 1777 et réflexions philosophiques sur ces nouveaux républicains.” In Military Analysis of the Revolutionary War: An Anthology. Edited by Donald Higginbotham, 201-217. Millwood, NY: KTO, 1977.
  240. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  241. Ganot’s account of the American army is unique, because he did not take part in the American Revolution as a member of Rochambeau’s army or as a volunteer. Rather, he writes from the perspective of a traveler, coming to see firsthand the army so lauded in the American press. This is another primary source easily available in English.
  242. Find this resource:
  243. Kennett, Lee. The French Forces in America, 1780–1783. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1977.
  244. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  245. In this book, Kennett examines the competence of the French army in America during the American Revolution. He shows how the French army behaved in a disciplined fashion, and he pays particular attention to how the French army overcame logistical difficulties in North America.
  246. Find this resource:
  247. Rice, Howard C., Jr., and Anne S. K. Brown, eds. The American Campaigns of Rochambeau’s Army, 1780, 1781, 1782, 1783. 2 vols. Translated by Howard C. Rice Jr. and Anne S. K. Brown. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1972.
  248. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  249. These volumes contain the journals of several of Rochambeau’s officers who served with him during the American Revolution. These are excellent primary sources for understanding French opinion of the American experience. They have been edited and translated into English.
  250. Find this resource:
  251. Unger, Harlow Giles. Lafayette. New York: Wiley, 2002.
  252. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  253. Unger is not a historian, but his readable and well-documented book on Lafayette does an excellent job of explaining how the nature of the French army shaped interactions between America and France during the American Revolution and the role of Lafayette in facilitating French aid.
  254. Find this resource:
  255. The Effect of American Revolutionary Participation
  256. With the French army serving in the American Revolution, which occurred shortly before the French Revolution, it is only natural for historians to look at the French forces in America for signs of the coming French Revolution. The question of the relationship between the American and the French Revolutions is a complicated one with a history that goes almost as far back as the French Revolution itself. Nicolai 1992 (cited in French Forces in North America) provides an exhaustive history and bibliography of this debate in the introduction. In addition to both countries experiencing a revolution so close together, as Murphy 1977 explains, military historians are especially intrigued by the citizen army that sprang up in France during the French Revolution as well as by the levée en masse of 1793, which increased the number of troops in the French army to three hundred thousand men and included in the ranks French citizens from all walks of life. Especially during the latter half of the 20th century, historians seem to have concluded that a causal relationship did not exist between the French and American Revolutions. In particular, Both Bodinier 1983 and Scott 1998 have been able to establish that French officers did not “transport” revolution from America to France, despite the visibility and enthusiasm of the Marquis de Lafayette, who embodies much of the public’s perception of the relationship between the two revolutions. Paret 1978 establishes that fighting in America did not influence European armies on a tactical level. Osman 2008 tries to reopen the debate by suggesting that the American Revolution’s influence on the French army may have more to do with French perceptions of patriotism and citizen-soldiers than military tactics or immediate ideas of “revolution.”
  257. Bodinier, Gilbert. Les officiers de L’armée royale: Combattants de la guerre d’Indépendance des États-Unis, de Yorktown à l’an II. Vincennes, France: Service Historique de L’Armée de Terre, 1983.
  258. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  259. This encyclopedic volume examines the French army and its officers before, during, and after the American Revolution. Bodinier concludes that participating in the American Revolution did little to encourage French officers to launch their own revolution. The book is brimming with useful data on the French army’s nature and structure.
  260. Find this resource:
  261. Murphy, Orville T. “The American Revolutionary Army and the Concept of Levee en Masse.” In Military Analysis of the Revolutionary War: An Anthology. Edited by Donald Higginbotham, 218-225. Millwood, NY: KTO, 1977.
  262. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  263. Murphy uses French accounts of the American army and militias to argue that, by the late 18th century, French thought already glorified the idea of a nation of citizen-soldiers dedicated to conserving and defending their nation. According to French writers, the American army benefited by being “close to nature.”
  264. Find this resource:
  265. Osman, Julia. “Ancient Warriors on Modern Soil: French Military Reform and American Military Images in 18th Century France.” French History 22 (June 2008): 175–196.
  266. DOI: 10.1093/fh/crn011Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  267. Osman explores how the French constructed images of the American Revolutionary army and militias in the context of the need for the French army to reform and in light of then-prevalent French adulation of ancient Greek and Roman military forces. Interest in the American army confirmed to French readers that a modern-day citizen army was possible.
  268. Find this resource:
  269. Paret, Peter. “The Relationship between the Revolutionary War and European Military Thought and Practice in the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century.” In Reconsiderations on the Revolutionary War. Edited by Don Higginbotham, 144–157. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1978.
  270. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  271. Paret argues that the American Revolution did not influence European armies on a tactical level. However, Paret does say the American Revolution “reintroduced ideologically-motivated warfare” that had been more common in Europe during the 17th century.
  272. Find this resource:
  273. Scott, Samuel F. From Yorktown to Valmy. Niwot: University Press of Colorado, 1998.
  274. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  275. Scott traces the French army from the beginnings of its campaigns in the American Revolution through the French Revolutionary Battle of Valmy in 1793. Scott considers the effect of the American Revolution on the French, but this readable book is most valuable for its accounts of the French army in America.
  276. Find this resource:
  277. The French Revolution
  278. All through the Old Regime, the French army served not only as a means to stave off invasion or fight in international conflicts, but also to put down domestic disturbances. The domestic disturbance of 1789, which burst into revolution, however, could not be contained by the French army. Why, at this point, did the French army cease to be an effective force? How did the French army make the transition from an Old Regime institution to a revolutionary institution? Godechot 1970 and Scott 1978 address that moment of transition, and these works focus on the turning points for the army, either at the Bastille or in response to unsatisfactory reforms. Blanning 1996 addresses the effect of warfare on the outbreak as well as the course of the French Revolution. Lynn 1989 looks at the change in morals that had to occur for the army to go from a French Revolutionary force to a Napoleonic one, whereas Lynn 1984 focuses on a specific part of the French Revolutionary army to understand the sudden upsurge in motivation among the ranks. Chilly 1909, while dated, is still one of the better works on the transition from Old Regime to revolution from the administration’s point of view. Bell 2007 is a controversial work, arguing that the Old Regime laid the foundations for a transition to a highly destructive way of fighting that the author defines as “total war” during the Napoleonic era. While military force in the French Revolution is worthy of its own bibliography, these works provide an entry point to the transitions the French army underwent during the French Revolution.
  279. Bell, David A. The First Total War: Napoleon’s Europe and the Birth of Warfare as We Know It. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2007.
  280. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  281. Defining total war as something that can be waged only by a nation-state and, therefore, as a type of conflict not realized until Napoleon, Bell sees its roots in 18th-century France, where the ideal of an eternal peace justified a great war to commence this peace.
  282. Find this resource:
  283. Blanning, T.C.W. The French Revolutionary Wars, 1781–1802. London: Arnold, 1996.
  284. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  285. Blanning argues that war, going back to the Seven Years’ War, was crucial to the beginning and course of the French Revolution. The French Revolutionary wars against Austria and Prussia contributed to the paranoia that emerged during the Revolution, and military rebellion and a desire for efficiency smoothed the way for Napoleon.
  286. Find this resource:
  287. Chilly, Lucien de. Le premier ministre constitutionnel de la guerre: La Tour du Pin: Les origines de l’armée nouvelle sous la Constituante. Paris: Perrin, 1909.
  288. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  289. This work is dated, but it provides wonderful detail on the transition of the army from an Old Regime institution to a force that was reborn at the start of the French Revolution. It includes many details about soldiers in the units of National Guards springing up throughout France.
  290. Find this resource:
  291. Godechot, Jacques. The Taking of the Bastille, July 14th, 1789. Translated by Jean Stewart. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1970.
  292. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  293. Godechot places the fall of the Bastille in the larger context of social unrest and Atlantic world revolutions. In addition to describing the economic, social, and intellectual tensions that climaxed in the taking of the Bastille, Godechot scrutinizes the various groups that participated in the event, from Gardes françaises to French soldiers.
  294. Find this resource:
  295. Lynn, John. The Bayonets of the Republic: Motivation and Tactics in the Army of Revolutionary France, 1791–94. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1984.
  296. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  297. Lynn examines the Armée de Nord from 1791 to 1794 in order to understand the motivations and training of ordinary soldiers. Lynn finds the soldiers to have been sincerely patriotic, and he categorizes them not as an emotional horde that is victorious only in numbers but as a well-trained, highly effective fighting force.
  298. Find this resource:
  299. Lynn, John. “Towards an Army of Honor: The Moral Evolution of the French Army, 1789–1815.” French Historical Studies 16 (1989): 152–182.
  300. DOI: 10.2307/286437Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  301. Lynn studies the transformation of the army from a French Revolutionary to a Napoleonic force. He argues that soldiers under the Revolution had been expected to serve their patrie selflessly, whereas soldiers under Napoleon were expected to consider their own goals for promotion in the army.
  302. Find this resource:
  303. Scott, Samuel F. The Response of the Royal Army to the French Revolution: The Role and Development of the Line Army, 1787–93. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978.
  304. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  305. Drawing on a vast amount of statistical information culled from the archives, Scott shows how the army and the French Revolution affected each other. Divided by a dual desire for reform and for maintenance of traditional privilege, the French army could not stop the French Revolution, which exacerbated its problems.
  306. Find this resource:
  307. Soldiers
  308. French soldiers during the period before the French Revolution are very difficult to study, as they haled largely from the urban and rural poor and have left behind little in terms of written records. Therefore, historians have had to rely largely on numeric information found in the archives, much of which has been compiled in Corvisier 1964, and on officers’ reports, which must be read carefully, as those reflect only officers’ points of view. The social chasm between officers and soldiers was significant, as they operated within completely opposite circles in society. Though Hale 1998 also deals with European armies more broadly, it makes valuable claims on how the relationship between a soldier and his society changed after he joined the army. Lynn 2008 brings attention to the much-neglected role of women camp followers of the army, and, in doing so, the author also uncovers much information on soldiers and plunder. Jones 1980 treats the ever-present dismal living conditions of the soldier. McDonald 1951 uses correlations in geography to speculate on the reactions of soldiers to the American Revolution, but while the author’s methods are worth noting, his conclusions are tentative. Pichichero 2008 delves into the French soldiers and the concept of selfhood, an example of how cultural and literary methods are useful in studies of military history. At the close of the Old Regime, French officers took pains to consider the position of their soldiers and strove to find means of motivating them, but sources on soldiers do not become more abundant until the French Revolution. Two cornerstone works on French soldiers in the French Revolution, Bertaud 1988 and Forrest 1990, are included, therefore, to show some of the methods that French historians have used to understand soldiers as well as how soldiers during the early French Revolution resembled, or stood in contrast to, their counterparts from the Old Regime.
  309. Bertaud, Jean-Paul. The Army of the French Revolution: From Citizen-Soldiers to Instrument of Power. Translated by R. R. Palmer. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988.
  310. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  311. Bertaud examines the French army from the eve of the French Revolution to the advent of Napoleon, paying particular attention to how the royal line army made way for a new citizen army in 1791 and 1792 and how these citizen soldiers became increasingly professional and dependent on military authorities.
  312. Find this resource:
  313. Corvisier, André. L’Armée française de la fin du XVIIe siècle au ministère de Choiseul: Le soldat. 2 vols. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1964.
  314. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  315. This is the ultimate work and reference on soldiers in the French army during the Old Regime. Corvisier presents information on soldiers’ origins, ages, heights, rate of promotion within the ranks, and desertion rates, among other things. He uses prose as well as charts and graphs.
  316. Find this resource:
  317. Forrest, Alan. Soldiers of the French Revolution. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1990.
  318. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  319. Forrest examines the citizen-soldiers of the French Revolution during the early French Revolutionary wars, who are remembered as heroic patriots fighting for their nation. Forrest tests this idea and finds, in addition to patriotic sentiment, concerns for family, fellow soldiers, and the usual desire for better food and living conditions.
  320. Find this resource:
  321. Hale, J. R. War and Society in Renaissance Europe, 1450–1620. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1998.
  322. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  323. This classic “war and society” book focuses little on actual battles and violence and more on the origins and transformations of the people who make war. This work includes much information on England and Italy, and it provides useful insights into the mind-set and social standing of soldiers in general.
  324. Find this resource:
  325. Jones, Colin. “The Welfare of the French Foot-Soldier from Richelieu to Napoleon.” History 65 (1980): 193–213.
  326. DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-229X.1980.tb01940.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  327. Jones traces the poor living conditions of French soldiers as well as (almost all failed) attempts to improve those conditions throughout the Old Regime, French Revolution, and Napoleonic periods. He also argues that the availability of sex and plundered goods is what induced many men to sign up for, and stay in, the army.
  328. Find this resource:
  329. Lynn, John. Women, Armies, and Warfare in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
  330. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  331. John Lynn studies the camp followers that accompanied European armies on campaign, a little mentioned but, he argues, vital group. In addition to providing basic care for soldiers—washing, mending, cooking, and sexual favors—women played an important role in the “pillage economy” of the soldiers.
  332. Find this resource:
  333. McDonald, Forrest. “The Relation of the French Peasant Veterans of the American Revolution to the Fall of Feudalism in France, 1789–1792.” Agricultural History Magazine 25.4 (1951): 151–161.
  334. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  335. To ascertain the effect that fighting in the American Revolution had on French soldiers, McDonald compares the provinces from which most veterans came to those that were most violent during the Revolution. He finds a correlation, but he cannot prove that the desire to end economic feudalism accounts for it.
  336. Find this resource:
  337. Pichichero, Christy. “Le Soldat Sensible: Military Psychology and Social Egalitarianism in the Enlightenment French Army.” French Historical Studies 31.4 (2008): 553–580.
  338. DOI: 10.1215/00161071-2008-006Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  339. During the Enlightenment, ideas of psychology stemming from the Enlightenment were applied to soldiers and their physical and mental experiences in the army. These questions and their applications in practice contributed to the discovery by soldiers of selfhood and furthered the idea of equality in the army by the end of the Old Regime.
  340. Find this resource:
  341. Noble Officer Corps
  342. Many works in this category may not discuss the French army directly or even mention the major topic of the book in the context of the French army. Members of the French nobility, however, almost exclusively constituted the French officer corps, and, therefore, studies on their mentalités, relationship to the king or government, culture, education, and transformations over the course of the 17 and 18th centuries are important for contextualizing this crucial body of the French army. Jay Smith is one of the foremost historians on the French nobility. Smith 1996 looks at how nobles needed to prove that they “merited” the privilege to which they had been born. Smith 2005 provides an in-depth and nuanced look at how nobles viewed themselves in relation to changing social and cultural expectations, and the author’s chapter on the debates between the noblesse commerçante (which allowed nobles to participate in trade) and the noblesse militaire (which allowed nobles to serve only militarily) is especially valuable. Bell 2001 has a chapter on the imagined past of national icons, most of whom served militarily, that incorporates the importance of nobles’ militant reputation into their identity. Chaussinand-Nogaret 1989 speaks to the “bourgeois-ization” of the French nobility in terms of what they valued. Ney looks at violence and honor though dueling, which Lynn 2003 considers an extension of military behavior. Ellis 1986 presents a portrait of a “typical” noble and how he interpreted his world. Nye 1993 discusses the relationship between the noble officer corps and masculinity. Drévillon 2002 examines the role of the duel in the violent identity of noble officers. Chaussinand-Nogaret 1989 offers an explanation for the disparity in influence and wealth among noble officers.
  343. Bell, David. The Cult of the Nation in France: Inventing Nationalism, 1680–1800. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001.
  344. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  345. Bell argues that the French became a nation because of a desire to distance themselves from the religious wars of the past and the use of Christianity as a foundation for government as well as from the fact that “France” had become an increasingly centralized state, which allowed people to view themselves as living in a uniform society.
  346. Find this resource:
  347. Chaussinand-Nogaret, Guy. The French Nobility in the Eighteenth Century: From Feudalism to Enlightenment. Translated by William Doyle. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
  348. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  349. Chaussinand-Nogaret argues that the French nobility, increasingly intermarrying with financers’ daughters and buying posts that raised their status above that of the bourgeoisie, were responsible for increasing dynamism in French economics. Also, noble ideas of honor were replaced by more bourgeois ideas of merit and competition.
  350. Find this resource:
  351. Drevillon, Hervé, Pascal Broist, and Pierre Serna. Croiser le fer: Violence et culture de l’épée dans la France moderne, XVIe-XVIIIe siècles. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2002.
  352. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  353. These three authors deconstruct the duel and its place in early modern French and noble culture. Looking at the duel from all angles, they show how the practice, a bloody custom that debases the victim before killing him, took on such a romantic image.
  354. Find this resource:
  355. Ellis, Harold. “Genealogy, History, and the Aristocratic Reaction in Early Eighteenth-Century France: The Case of Henri de Boulainvilliers.” Journal of Modern History 58.2 (June 1986): 414–451.
  356. DOI: 10.1086/243014Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  357. From studying the “dissertation” of Henri de Boulainvilliers, which described his family genealogy, Ellis infers that his “genealogical consciousness” supplied Boulainvilliers with the social and political ideals that supported his privileges as a noble as well as “informed his efforts as a historian and a pedagogue.”
  358. Find this resource:
  359. Lynn, John. Battle: A History of Combat and Culture from Ancient Greece to Modern America. Boulder, CO: Westview, 2003.
  360. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  361. Lynn’s overall argument concerns the relationship between reality and discourse, but, in his chapter on early modern French warfare, he tries to explain it from a cultural lens, especially placing military contests in the larger context of a society constantly at war.
  362. Find this resource:
  363. Nye, Robert. Masculinity and Male Codes of Honor in Modern France. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.
  364. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  365. Nye tries to explain the persistence of the practice of dueling and ideas about masculinity and honor, which dated from the Old Regime, through the 20th century. His early chapter on duels and masculinity in the Old Regime will provide helpful context for those studying the army and masculinity.
  366. Find this resource:
  367. Rowlands, Guy. “Louis XIV, Aristocratic Power, and the Elite Units of the French Army.” French History 13 (1999): 303–331.
  368. DOI: 10.1093/fh/13.3.303Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  369. Rowlands describes Louis XIV’s decision to keep certain elite units of the French army free from control of the Ministry of War and thus attached more tightly to himself, resulting in a great divide in wealth and power between the highest-ranking court nobles and the more provincial nobility.
  370. Find this resource:
  371. Smith, Jay M. Culture of Merit: Nobility, Royal Service, and the Making of Absolute Monarchy in France, 1600–1789. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996.
  372. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  373. Smith traces the important role played by royal service in the making of the modern state and how the idea of “merit” was central in the minds of the French nobility. He also wrestles with the contradictory notions of merit and privilege by birth.
  374. Find this resource:
  375. Smith, Jay M. Nobility Reimagined: The Patriotic Nation in Eighteenth-Century France. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2005.
  376. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  377. Smith argues that the sense of nationalism that propelled France into revolution has its roots in earlier understandings of patriotism, virtue, and honor. He traces the various debates surrounding these values, and he explains members of the nobility attempted to reimagine themselves in a more “modern” state.
  378. Find this resource:
  379. Fortifications/Engineering
  380. France had a European-wide reputation during the 17th and 18th centuries for having the best artillery and fortifications, much of which was due to Sebastien Vauban, the great fortress-maker and siege-master who designed elegant and effective fortresses on French borders. The study of fortifications is important in and of itself as fortifications were key for the defense of French territory, together with the artillery essential for any siege or battle (Lynn 1993). Recent scholarship (Alder 1997, Langins 2004) has emphasized the relationship between engineering, the Enlightenment, and politics, especially as the officers in the artillery were the only ones required to pass an official (largely mathematical) examination to obtain their posts and also the only group of army officers who did not necessarily come from prominent noble families. Both Nef 1950 and McNeill 1982 look at the place of French technology in a broader history of war and technology. Ostwald 2007 exposes the tension between Vauban and army officers.
  381. Alder, Ken. Engineering the Revolution: Arms and Enlightenment in France, 1763–1815. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997.
  382. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  383. Alder looks at the role of engineering, technologically, socially, and politically, from the Old Regime through Napoleon. His work examines the relationships between technology and politics, and he successfully shows how engineers went from being a group on the margins of the French army to the center of it.
  384. Find this resource:
  385. Langins, Janis. Conserving the Enlightenment: French Military Engineering from Vauban to the Revolution. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004.
  386. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  387. While at times geared toward fellow engineers, the work of Langins is important for understanding the intricacies of French engineering as well as the more “conservative” stance of the engineers themselves. She also provides valuable insight on the debates surrounding Montalembert’s système perpendiculaire.
  388. Find this resource:
  389. Lynn, John A. Feeding Mars: Logistics in Western Warfare from the Middle Ages to the Present. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1993.
  390. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  391. This collection of essays argues for further study of logistics in highlighting their important throughout Western history. John Lynn provides an essay on the important role played by frontier fortresses in supplying the French army, which explains how battles for small pieces of land could be crucial for supply.
  392. Find this resource:
  393. McNeill, William H. The Pursuit of Power. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982.
  394. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  395. This work synthesizes military and technological history from 1100 to 1980, discussing the effect of market forces on army development. McNeill’s two chapters on warfare in Europe from 1600 to 1789 focus on the standardization of armies, their increased efficiency, and the challenges they met due to reorganization in the 18th century.
  396. Find this resource:
  397. Nef, John. War and Human Progress: An Essay on the Rise of Industrial Civilization. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1950.
  398. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  399. Along with discussions of long-term, far-reaching industrialization and its relationship to war, Nef argues that rationalism and material progress, as well as patriotism, made warfare less restrained by the time of the French Revolution. These same values also led to further industrialization.
  400. Find this resource:
  401. Ostwald, Jamel. Vauban under Siege: Engineering Efficiency and Martial Vigor in the War of the Spanish Succession. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2007.
  402. DOI: 10.1163/ej.9789004154896.i-393Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  403. Ostwald shows how Vauban’s sieges owed much of their success to his careful planning and execution, which, while saving artillery and reducing casualties, also required longer periods of time to conduct. Vauban’s approach differed from those of most French generals, exposing a corresponding cultural divide.
  404. Find this resource:
  405. Atrocity or Limited War
  406. Warfare between the French religious wars and the French Revolution is often thought of as a time of “limited warfare” in which monarchs and officers tried to restrict warfare to purely professional armies and usually fought for very specific goals, such as to decide who would succeed a dying sovereign or control a trade route. Furthermore, monarchs and officers reasoned that they could fight in an enlightened, civilized, disciplined manner that spared civilians and encouraged honorable surrenders to preserve the lives of soldiers and officers alike. Since a pitched battle would result in the loss of expensive troops that required years to train, combat was to be avoided, if possible, by careful maneuvering. Sutton 1980 says the “best” example of limited warfare is perhaps the War of the Polish Succession (1733–1738), and Weygand 1930 shows through the example of Marshal Turenne how French codes of honor and the expectations of limited war could produce brilliant officers. Anderson 1995 shows that any “limited” warfare was short-lived, and Meyer 1985 emphasizes the cruel realities accompanying “glorious” fighting. Recent literature, such as Satterfield 2003, has stressed that French officers and the king could conduct war by such “limited” methods only by ordering their soldiers to terrorize civilians. Outside of the main spectacle of land battles and sieges, armies relied on raids or scorched earth tactics to clinch a victory, prepare an area for combat, or ensure that the enemy army could not supply itself. While this kind of violence constituted an important aspect of many wars of the early modern period, it was most famously carried out by the French army in the destruction of the German Palatinate during the Nine Years’ War (Ferguson 1970, Lynn 2002). During this war, the French army completely destroyed whole villages, giving the populace little time to flee and incurring violent retribution. The following works present either a more “limited” perspective or emphasize this “other side” of war. Lynn 1993 contextualizes some of the partisan violence in terms of army supply.
  407. Anderson, Matthew S. The War of the Austrian Succession, 1740–1748. New York: Longman, 1995.
  408. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  409. Anderson provides a narrative of the war, thoroughly covering the colonial, Italian, and maritime theaters. He focuses on atrocity in the war, and he also argues that the advanced age of the commanders largely influenced the outcome of the war.
  410. Find this resource:
  411. Ferguson, Ronald Thomas. “Blood and Fire: Contribution Policy of the French Armies in Germany, 1668–1715.” PhD diss., University of Minnesota, 1970.
  412. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  413. This work examines the extreme violence of war and its justification, especially when Louis XIV’s army leveled the German Palatinate. It was common practice to create “belts of waste” to prevent enemy armies from supplying themselves, but here the violence was even more extreme.
  414. Find this resource:
  415. Lynn, John. “How War Fed War: The Tax of Violence and Contributions during the Grande Siècle.” Journal of Modern History 65 (1993): 286–310.
  416. DOI: 10.1086/244639Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  417. Lynn describes how, rather than allowing armies to pillage towns in enemy territory to feed and sustain themselves, governments elicited “contributions” from towns that would nourish the army but prevent wholesale violence. In this sense, war fed itself.
  418. Find this resource:
  419. Lynn, John. “A Brutal Necessity? The Devastation of the Palatinate, 1688–1689.” In Civilians in the Path of War. Edited by Mark Grimsley and Clifford Rogers, 79–110. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2002.
  420. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  421. Lynn looks at the destruction of the German Palatinate during the Nine Years’ War as an example of “calculated violence,” as the atrocities committed represented more than just unruly soldiers. Throughout the book, Lynn asks “how necessary” the atrocities were for Louis XIV to achieve his war aims.
  422. Find this resource:
  423. Meyer, Jean. “‘De la guerre’ au XVIIe siècle.” XVII Siècle 37 (1985): 266–290.
  424. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  425. Meyer weighs the “glorious” aims and reputations of early modern French warfare against its “cruel realities.” He looks at the “right of destruction” that an army had over its enemies or of its right to exact retribution for revolts.
  426. Find this resource:
  427. Satterfield, George. Princes, Posts, and Partisans: The Army of Louis XIV and Partisan Warfare in the Netherlands, 1673–1678. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2003.
  428. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  429. Satterfield presents an original and important study of petite guerre, or partisan warfare, and its importance to larger sieges or battles during 17th-century warfare. Not only does this present a richer, more violent picture of warfare, but it also turns the “limited war” theory on its head.
  430. Find this resource:
  431. Sutton, John L. The King’s Honor and the King’s Cardinal: The War of the Polish Succession. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1980.
  432. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  433. Presents the War of the Polish Succession as the “best” example of limited warfare in Europe, though perhaps it could also be called the “only” limited war in Europe when compared with the scholarship of Satterfield 2003 and McCullough 2007 (cited under Violence and Protest).
  434. Find this resource:
  435. Weygand, Max. Maxime Turenne, Marshal of France. Translated by George B. Ives. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1930.
  436. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  437. Weygand presents a thorough account of Turenne, who was perhaps one of the greatest officers of the Old Regime French army. More than an example of courage and leadership, Turenne shows how the culture and organization of the French army could produce capable military men.
  438. Find this resource:
  439. Government and Politics
  440. The books in this section consider the political background for many of the wars and periods of military reform during the 17th and 18th centuries. Just as the Enlightenment influenced military decisions, so did the political atmosphere. Some of these books (Jones 2002, Doyle 2009) also consider institutions outside the French army, but they provide clear explanations of political events that influenced the French army and they give excellent context for some of the more French army–specific works. Especially since French officers all came from the noble class, court politics and issues with the aristocracy influenced the officer corps. Kaiser 2000 goes so far as to argue that politics determined the shape of war, though Weigley 1991 argues the opposite, that war frustrated politics. In the same vein, larger diplomatic and geopolitical goals served as the basis in determining where and why the French army would be sent, such as France’s American colonies. Here, Mapp 2011 and Dull 1975 are particularly valuable. Sarmant 2007 is the go-to guide on French ministers of war, and Baxter 1976 looks at the role of the army intendants in the growing centralization of the 17th century. Chagniot 1985 discusses civil-military relations in France through the 18th century into the years of the French Revolution.
  441. Baxter, Douglas C. Servants of the Sword: French Intendants of the Army, 1630–70. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1976.
  442. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  443. Baxter examines the origins of the French army intendants (distinct from provincial French intendants) and argues that due to the nature of their positions, they strengthened royal authority and solidified administrative authority over the army in the crucial years between the end of the Thirty Years’ War and the establishment of Louis XIV’s reign.
  444. Find this resource:
  445. Chagniot, Jean. Paris et l’armée au XVIII siècle: Étude politique et sociale. Paris: Economica, 1985.
  446. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  447. This well-received book examines the tensions in the relationship between Paris and the French army throughout the 18th century up to the French Revolution.
  448. Find this resource:
  449. Doyle, William. Aristocracy and Its Enemies in the Age of Revolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
  450. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199559855.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  451. Doyle explains the ideology that justified the inequality inherent in any noble system and the acknowledged flaws. While few had considered abolishing the system, the founding of the Society of the Cincinnati in America sparked a debate questioning the necessity of an aristocracy, an institution that came under growing assault throughout the French Revolution.
  452. Find this resource:
  453. Dull, Jonathan. The French Navy and American Independence: A Study of Arms and Diplomacy, 1774–1787. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1975.
  454. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  455. Dull argues that France fought in the American War for Independence specifically to end Britain’s dominance of maritime commerce and military prowess on the seas. He places French naval policy in the center of his work and argues for its overall importance in France’s strategies for fighting the war.
  456. Find this resource:
  457. Jones, Colin. The Great Nation: France from Louis XV to Napoleon. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.
  458. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  459. A very readable overview of political, cultural, and intellectual history in France during the Old Regime, the French Revolution, and the Napoleonic period. The author places the French army within the wider context of France’s history and explains very clearly some of the political, economic, and cultural happenings that affected it.
  460. Find this resource:
  461. Kaiser, David. Politics and War: European Conflict from Philip II to Hitler. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000.
  462. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  463. Kaiser contends that each era of European warfare was distinct because each era was defined by the politics of its time. Wars of the 16th and 17th centuries, therefore, bear little resemblance to warfare under Louis XIV because of different political contexts.
  464. Find this resource:
  465. Mapp, Paul. The Elusive West and the Contest for Empire, 1713–1763. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2011.
  466. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  467. Mapp’s book presents a broad diplomatic history of the competing Spanish, French, and English empires in North America. While he does not deal directly with the French army, he provides extremely clear descriptions of treaties and political aims that effected how or why the French army would be deployed.
  468. Find this resource:
  469. Sarmant, Thiery, Guillaume Lasconjarias, Benjamin Mercier, Emmanuel Pénicaut, and Mathieu Stoll. Les ministres de la guerre, 1570–1792: Histoire et dictionnaire biographique. Paris: Belin, 2007.
  470. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  471. This book provides an entry for each minister of war during the Old Regime and into the Revolution, with biographical information, accounts of their career, and major accomplishments while at their post. Each entry includes primary and secondary citations.
  472. Find this resource:
  473. Weigley, Russell F. The Age of Battles: The Quest for Decisive Warfare from Breitenfeld to Waterloo. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991.
  474. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  475. Weigley recasts Old Regime European warfare, starting with the Thirty Years’ War, as inherently indecisive. Rather than being “politics by other means” as Clausewitz stated, warfare in this period confounded politics, wasting precious resources while achieving little.
  476. Find this resource:
  477. War and Philosophy
  478. Changes to the conduct of French warfare in the 18th century did not happen in a vacuum divorced from the influence of the principles of the French Enlightenment. Rather, they were informed by the discussions of the Enlightenment, and ideas about virtue, patriotism, and citizenship proved crucial to French military reform, especially during and after the Seven Years’ War. Wright 1997 does not specifically address the French army, but the subject of this book, the philosopher Mably, argued that a direct relationship existed between society and the army and that making society “more military” would naturally improve social virtues. The other works in this category are more explicit about the relationship between the Enlightenment and warfare, namely, between military culture and the philosophy supporting it. Kaplan 1999 makes direct connections between changing ideas and changing military practices. Several authors (Palmer 1986, Gat 1989) that provide a longer intellectual history of Western armies include Jacques Antoine Hippolyte, the Comte de Guibert, an army officer, reformer, and philosophe who was highly respected by Enlightenment figures. Ménard 1977 introduces Guibert’s most famous text, the Essai général de tactique, and contextualizes it as a monumental piece during times of great change. Guibert served in the army at a young age and was schooled by his father in the art of war. After the Seven Years’ War, some of which Guibert witnessed firsthand, he helped his father begin some early reforms in the army. From his position as a highly educated officer who saw both the military campaigns and the administrative work of the French army, Guibert felt well positioned to make bold claims about the possibility of having the French army resemble the citizen armies of ancient Greece and Rome. The resulting “General Essay on Tactics” received accolades from both military and civilian circles, evincing the similar interests and concerns they shared. Guibert is emblematic of broad conversations regarding the relationship between the French army, society, and government. Lanier 2001 highlights another crucial, but later, military thinker, Joseph Servan.
  479. Gat, Azar. The Origins of Military Thought: From the Enlightenment to Clausewitz. Oxford: Clarendon, 1989.
  480. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  481. In this work, the author is more interested in the thoughts behind war than in tactics. His essay on Guibert explains Guibert’s newly proposed tactics in the Essai General de Tactique clearly and succinctly. He also places Guibert in the wider context of Enlightenment officers and those that would follow.
  482. Find this resource:
  483. Kaplan, Nira I. “A Changing Culture of Merit: French Competitive Examinations and the Politics of Selection, 1750–1820.” PhD. diss., Columbia University, 1999.
  484. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  485. Kaplan uses the examinations administered to potential military officers in order to assess the changing ideas of what constituted “merit,” which proved to be a nuanced blend of older and revolutionary ideas in the latter half of the 18th century.
  486. Find this resource:
  487. Lanier, Jacques-François. Le général Joseph Servan de Gerbey: Pour une armée au service de l’homme. Valence, France: SRIG, 2001.
  488. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  489. Joseph Servan de Gerbey wrote a monumental military and philosophical treatise in 1780 called “The Citizen Soldier,” outlining precisely how a citizen army could work in France. Lanier’s book presents a biography of the man and some commentary on his famous treatise.
  490. Find this resource:
  491. Ménard, Henri. “Preface.” In Écrits militaires, 1772–1790. By Jacques Antoine Hippolyte de Guibert, 15–48. Paris: Copernic, 1977.
  492. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  493. Écrits militaires is an edited and published collection of some of Guibert’s most important works on French army tactics and philosophy. In the preface, Menard puts Guibert’s works in the context of the 1770s through 1790 and explains how they resonate in the 20th century.
  494. Find this resource:
  495. Palmer, R. R. “Frederick the Great, Guibert, Bülow: From Dynastic to National War.” In Makers of Modern Strategy. Edited by Peter Paret, 91–120. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1986.
  496. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  497. Palmer examines the three men in the title, who are near contemporaries with each other, in order to explain the transition in European warfare from dynastic conflicts to nationalism. Guibert straddles the two, reintroducing the idea of patriotic, citizen-soldier warfare, and then, shortly afterward, refuting his revolutionary ideas.
  498. Find this resource:
  499. Wright, Johnson Kent. A Classical Republican in Eighteenth-Century France: The Political Thought of Mably. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1997.
  500. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  501. Wright rescues Mably from obscurity by introducing readers to his prolific body of work and classifying his political thought as akin to that espoused by writers during the ancient Greek and Roman Republics. Mably also formulated cogent and influential ideas on the relationship between the army and the society that supports it.
  502. Find this resource:
  503. Violence and Protest
  504. In addition to defending the borders of France from outside invaders or fighting wars abroad for dynastic interests, the early modern French army also served as a police force to quell domestic conflicts. When towns or provinces resisted paying taxes, harbored Protestants, or participated in any other form of dissent, the French army could arrive to either put down the revolt violently or coerce the civilians into submission with their mere presence and use of subtler forms of violence. McCullough 2007, in particular, discusses how the French army was used against the French people. Bercé 1990 examines the complicated reality of the culture of violence at the village level, and Carroll 2006 focuses on the meaning of violence among the nobility. Rudé 2005 (originally published in 1964), still a standard work in the field, considers the power and makeup of a crowd. Bouton 1993 incorporates cultural and gender history methodologies to explain a particular set of riots in mid-18th-century France. Violence and protest are also important to the larger story of the French army in the 17th and 18th centuries as towns often provided their own means for maintaining order with a local militia (milice), which is discussed in Beik 1997. These local militia may have served as a forerunner to the National Guards, which appeared throughout France at the commencement of the French Revolution. These works, thus, will prove useful for the scholar who is interested in the broader relationship between soldiers and civilians.
  505. Beik, William. Urban Protest in Seventeenth-Century France: The Culture of Retribution. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
  506. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  507. This books looks at the revolts in France from the end of the Wars of Religion until 1675. In addition to its insights on the causes for, and the larger aims of, revolts, this work also discusses militias and the attempts by towns to regulate violence.
  508. Find this resource:
  509. Bercé, Yves-Marie. History of Peasant Revolts: The Social Origins of Rebellion in Early Modern France. Translated by Amanda Whitmore. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1990.
  510. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  511. This book examines revolts in 17th-century France. The author argues that rather than serving as examples of crazed, desperate violence, these revolts reveal insights into justice, retribution, and even order at the village level. The style of revolts changed, though, as the French state became more centralized.
  512. Find this resource:
  513. Bouton, Cynthia. The Flour War: Gender, Class, and Community in Late Ancien Régime French Society. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1993.
  514. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  515. Bouton uses the transition from feudalism to capitalism in France as well as uneven change in institutions during the mid-18th century to explain the riots surrounding Paris that broke out in 1775 that are collectively known as the “Flour War.”
  516. Find this resource:
  517. Carroll, Stuart. Blood and Violence in Early Modern France. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
  518. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199290451.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  519. Stuart argues that instances of vindicatory violence among nobles increased from the late medieval period through the 16th century, largely because of the disintegration of the monarchy, the rise of Protestantism, and the threats of increased social mobility. Carroll asserts that violence increases, even in “civilized” societies.
  520. Find this resource:
  521. McCullough, Roy L. Coercion, Conversion and Counterinsurgency in Louis XIV’s France. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2007.
  522. DOI: 10.1163/ej.9789004156616.i-268Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  523. McCullough shows how the use of force against recalcitrant villages in Louis XIV’s France could spawn further rebellion as well as quell it as well as how Louis XIV used his army to root out and extinguish French Protestants.
  524. Find this resource:
  525. Rudé, George. The Crowd in History: A Study of Popular Disturbances in France and England, 1730–1848. London: Serif, 2005.
  526. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  527. Rudé’s book looks at the makeup of crowds behind the popular disturbances in Britain and France in the 18th and 19th centuries. Rudé argues that the leaders of riots tended to be among the better-educated of the rioters. Originally published in 1964.
Advertisement
Add Comment
Please, Sign In to add comment
Advertisement
Public Pastes
Advertisement
We use cookies for various purposes including analytics. By continuing to use Pastebin, you agree to our use of cookies as described in the Cookies Policy.  OK, I Understand
Not a member of Pastebin yet?
Sign Up, it unlocks many cool features!