By the fifteenth century the Swiss method of warfare; in which disciplined foot soldiers fought in tightly formed units; was being imitated. The Germans and Spanish took notice when in 1479 Archduke Maximilian and his victorious Flemish infantrymen used their long pikes to prevent the mounted French knights from charging. The era of modern warmaking was at hand. In this last volume of his classic history of the art of war; Hans Delbrück considers new developments: the use of gunpowder; the invention of firearms; and the employment of noisy large cannon that shot stone and; later; iron balls. After reviewing the establishment of a European infantry; Delbrück discusses the transformation of loose confederations of knights into cavalry (well developed by the last Huguenot wars); the organization of fighting mercenaries (followed by wives and prostitutes); and the changing of mercenary bands into standing armies.The Dawn of Modern Warfare is colored by larger-than-life personalities: Niccolo Machiavelli; the theoretician of the new art of war; Maurice of Orange; renovator of the art of drill and father of military discipline; Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden; perfecter of infantry tactics; Oliver Cromwell of England; reorganizer of a citizen militia into a professional army; and Frederick the Great and Napoleon Bonaparte; military strategists par excellence.
#4099655 in Books University of Nebraska Press 2005-06-01Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.02 x 1.19 x 5.98l; 1.87 #File Name: 0803239610448 pages
Review
0 of 3 people found the following review helpful. A MessBy not meThe original 1981 edition of "The Transatlantic Slave Trade" (the one I read) was a comprehensive look at the Atlantic slave trade from its origins to its abolition in the 1800s. The book was based on a deep reading of the secondary literature; and professional historians probably enjoyed it. However; the book was a problem for general readers. It was wordy; disorganized; and repetitive. The print was tiny. Too much space was devoted to "insider" arguments with other historians and to revisions of popular misconceptions of the slave trade (the author was eager to prove that the slave trade wasn't super-profitable for traders or super-lethal for slaves). Worst of all; parts were little more than heaps of facts; dates; and statistics. Hopefully the revised edition is better written and edited.
