Book review: Age of Battles
Weigley, Russell F. The Age of Battles: the quest for decisive warfare from Breitenfeld to Waterloo. (Indiana, 1991)
Surveys the history of European wars from 1631 to 1815, looking at two overarching themes: the quest for the tantalizingly elusive Decisive Battle, and the rise of a professional approach to military command. Reads very much like a combination of Paul Kennedy’s Rise and Fall of the Great Powers and Fletcher Pratt’s Battles That Changed History. (Weigley cites Kennedy in his bibliography; his patronizing tone is a little ironic, since in his conclusion he seems to end up agreeing with just that part of Kennedy’s thesis that he dismisses in the bibliographic notes.)
Observations: Weigley tries for a level of comprehensive detail perhaps more befitting a reference book, giving every date in both Gregorian/Julian formats, or later, Gregorian/French Revolutionary; all distances in miles and kilometers; every commander’s name and rank in full at first mention (and some of those 18th-c. names are pretty full); and narrating the course of every individual battle, regardless of whether it’s relevant to either of his main themes. Add to that the way his Decisive Battle theme seems to keep contradicting itself, and the Rise of Military Professionalism theme becomes a faint motif so drowned out it can scarcely be followed.
Two woofs: better as a reference book than as the development of a thesis. I continue to be hyper-sensitized to bad proofreading: typoes in the names of the months of the Revolutionary calendar I can (grudgingly) accept, but shouldn’t “Prince Eugøne” have caught someone’s eye?!? Also, “cavalry” is a perfectly acceptable word, you don’t have to replace it with “the mobile arm of decision” every other time it comes up.
Surveys the history of European wars from 1631 to 1815, looking at two overarching themes: the quest for the tantalizingly elusive Decisive Battle, and the rise of a professional approach to military command. Reads very much like a combination of Paul Kennedy’s Rise and Fall of the Great Powers and Fletcher Pratt’s Battles That Changed History. (Weigley cites Kennedy in his bibliography; his patronizing tone is a little ironic, since in his conclusion he seems to end up agreeing with just that part of Kennedy’s thesis that he dismisses in the bibliographic notes.)
Observations: Weigley tries for a level of comprehensive detail perhaps more befitting a reference book, giving every date in both Gregorian/Julian formats, or later, Gregorian/French Revolutionary; all distances in miles and kilometers; every commander’s name and rank in full at first mention (and some of those 18th-c. names are pretty full); and narrating the course of every individual battle, regardless of whether it’s relevant to either of his main themes. Add to that the way his Decisive Battle theme seems to keep contradicting itself, and the Rise of Military Professionalism theme becomes a faint motif so drowned out it can scarcely be followed.
Two woofs: better as a reference book than as the development of a thesis. I continue to be hyper-sensitized to bad proofreading: typoes in the names of the months of the Revolutionary calendar I can (grudgingly) accept, but shouldn’t “Prince Eugøne” have caught someone’s eye?!? Also, “cavalry” is a perfectly acceptable word, you don’t have to replace it with “the mobile arm of decision” every other time it comes up.