War during the Military Revolution: Cultural History and the Longue Durée (Seminar)

Kristen B. Neuschel is Associate Professor of History at Duke University and currently serves as Director of the Thompson Writing Program. The notion of an early modern military revolution has undergone significant revision in recent years. Nevertheless, many scholars agree that conditions and circumstances of warfare, if not wholly new in the sixteenth century, were novel enough by themselves to produce new strains in the body politic, strains that became acute when overlayed with religious and constitutional crisis, such as in France. Neuschel argues, in contrast, that certain aspects of warfare and politics in the sixteenth century can best be understood as part of much longer term and more gradual changes in the culture of violence and in warrior identity, datable in their origins to ca. 1300 and even earlier.

For more information see the website: http://www.unc.edu/mhss/. A pre-circulated paper is available one week in advance at fbruehoe@email.unc.edu. This seminar is co-sponsored by the Triangle Institute for Security Studies.