Jeremy Black. War in European History, 1494-1660. Dulles: Potomac Books, 2006. ix + 118 pp. $14.95 (paper), ISBN 978-1-57488-971-0.

Reviewed by Alex Hunnicutt (Department of History, University of Texas-Arlington)
Published on H-German (February, 2008)

Studying War: A Guide for the Perplexed

Among historians writing on military themes, Jeremy Black is arguably one of the best known and regarded. He has produced a highly useful book that focuses unwaveringly on its target. This book provides a detailed, nuanced guide to the literature available on the subject of European war during what may be referred to as a very long sixteenth century. Black brings to bear his knowledge, even mastery, of a vast body of writings to present a distilled collection of works that convey the core and essence of the information available. He assumes a familiarity with the events on the part of the reader; he similarly eschews the usual convention of referring to authors by their full names at least once. The pace is brisk; Black does not linger. Rather, the writing is lean to the point of being frustrating. This is not, as the title by itself would suggest, a book on war in European history. Instead, as the series title clarifies, it is an essential bibliographical guide to works about war in European history. It provides a source guide to material for covering war as its own subject and as it relates to broader aspects of interest.

Black divides his material between works primarily focused on the military itself and those that examine a connection between war and social or cultural issues. For the most part, the works mentioned are secondary sources. There are a few primary works, eyewitness accounts, but the bulk of the sources are recent products in the genre. The range of sources included is extensive; however, no sense of the criteria for inclusion emerges. Presumably these sources represent the best, most complete, most useful or some other superlative in their respective area, but Black does not discuss either the relative merits of these sources nor his selection process.

The book is arranged into seven thematic chapters with an eighth chapter providing summarizing conclusions. Black begins with a chapter on Europe in the world that treats war as it involved Europe and non-European forces. European exceptionalism finds expression here, as Black points to sources that discuss and rebut that notion. In "War and The State," he addresses the role of war in the process of state formation as experienced in England, France, Russia, and other parts of Europe. Not only does he lead the reader to useful texts that examine and develop these themes, he also points out lacunae in the literature. He notes, for example, a need for a systematic study of feudalism across Europe. "Struggles for Dominance" explores war as regional powers strove to assert their hegemony. In "The Nature of Conflict," Black covers the diverse ways warfare was waged, from full battles and campaigns to minor skirmishes. He opines that insufficient significance has been accorded to little raids and small-scale wars; he suggests their role in history deserves reevaluation (p. 22). "A Military Revolution?" discusses works dealing with notions of interactions and interrelations among the military, official ruling powers, and actual ruling powers. The chapter seems to point at an early modern version of a military-industrial complex, though in an almost unrecognizably inchoate form.

The chapters described above (1-5) are all brief, totaling together a mere thirty pages. Chapters 6 and 7, however provide lengthier coverage of their subjects. Chapter 6 is a case study of the Italian Wars from 1494 to 1559 and chapter 7 deals with case studies in Spain and Scandinavia. Black explains that the Italian Wars witnessed the development of many important innovations in tactics (new uses of bayonets and pikes) and technology (most notably, gunpowder). He uses Spain and Scandinavia because the former is well-studied while the latter receives relatively minimal attention from scholars. In these longer chapters, not only does Black thoroughly cover aspects of warfare as they relate to these cases but he also ties in the themes he introduced in the first five chapters.

Over all, this is a very useful book. As a guide to writings on themes of war in European history, the book seems extremely valuable. I wish I could state that I enjoyed reading it but I found it to be more akin to reading a dictionary--obviously functional and utilitarian, yet not necessarily pleasurable. Clearly, the assumption behind the lean and sparse style was the reader's familiarity with the topics at hand. This may have been the style imposed by the series' editors. However, inclusion of an index would increase the usefulness of the book enormously. Sometimes, I found it difficult to connect Black's text to specific books listed in the bibliography, particularly in cases of multiple works by the same author. The practice of only referring to an author by the last name, without mentioning a title, forces the reader to figure out exactly which book was intended. Nevertheless, those are minor issues. As a whole, the book serves as a practical and handy guide to a subject on which the literature fills many shelves. The reader is well served to have Black's knowledge and insights brought to bear in sifting through the available volumes and focusing on those that are most helpful.

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Citation: Alex Hunnicutt. Review of Black, Jeremy, War in European History, 1494-1660. H-German, H-Net Reviews. February, 2008.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=14228

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