ebook img

The Verdict of Battle: The Law of Victory and the Making of Modern War PDF

334 Pages·2012·1.852 MB·English
Save to my drive
Quick download
Download
Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.

Preview The Verdict of Battle: The Law of Victory and the Making of Modern War

THE VERDICT BATTLE of the law of victory and the making of modern war James Q. Whitman The Verdict of Battle The Verdict of Battle THE LAW OF VICTORY AND THE MAKING OF MODERN WAR James Q. Whitman Harvard University Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, En gland 2012 Copyright © 2012 by James Q. Whitman All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Whitman, James Q., 1957– The verdict of battle : the law of victory and the making of modern war / James Q. Whitman. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978- 0- 674- 06714- 1 (alk. paper) 1. War—Moral and ethical aspects. 2. Combat—Moral and ethical aspects. 3. Battles—Europe—History—18th century. 4. Military art and science— Europe—History—18th century. 5. War (International law). 6. Military ethics—History—18th century. 7. Military history—Europe—18th century. I. Title. U22.W55 2012 172'.42—dc23 2012022176 Contents A Note to the Reader vii Introduction 1 1. Why Battles Matter 25 2. Accepting the Wager of Battle 50 3. Laying Just Claim to the Profi ts of War 95 4. The Monarchical Monopolization of Military Violence 133 5. Were There Really Rules? 172 6. The Death of Pitched Battle 207 Conclusion 245 Notes 265 Ac know ledg ments 315 Index 317 A Note to the Reader The bulk of this book is about the wars of the eigh teenth century. Those wars fell into two broad classes: the land wars of the Eu ro pe an continent and the wars fought elsewhere on the globe. This book discusses only the great continental wars. It also has nothing to say about naval warfare. This is something to regret, but a single book can do only so much. All translations are my own, unless otherwise indicated. Citations to classical texts are given to the Loeb Classical Library editions. The Verdict of Battle

See more

The list of books you might like

Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.