The Military Revolution Debate: Readings On The Military Transformation Of Early Modern Europe

It's one of the best recommended books dealing with the Military Revolution which took place just after the Late Medieval Period. The reader is able to navigate himself in a collection of readings, which analyze the impacts of new weapons in the battlefields as also their sociological implications. ESPECIALLY, if you are a postgraduate student, I recommend it without any second thought. Dimitris

This book is a collection of essays and articles on the Military Revolution in early modern Europe. Eleven prominent historians contributed to the collection with original works or reprints of earlier articles. Taken together the anthology is not the sum total of the debate, but an excellent compilation of the several positions that military historians have taken and defended with regard to this topic. The editor, Clifford J. Rodgers is now a contract professor at the United States Military Academy. When this book was created Rodgers was an Olin Fellow at Yale University. The book, according to Rodgers, was inspired by events during a conference at the 1991 meeting of the American Military Institute in Durham, North Carolina. During that conference Rodgers, Geoffrey Parker, John Guilmartin and John Lynn gave short presentations on the topic after which the discussion was opened to the audiance. The spirited debate and discourse that followed served as the catalyst for this book. The Military Revolution was first put forward by Michael Roberts in the 1950s. Twenty years passed before Geoffrey Parker took a poke at the thesis. The fundamental idea here is that there are (or have been) times when something, be it technology, doctrine, social changes or economic changes, changed and caused one military to surpass all others such that the others had to adapt, adopt, or perish. That's a "Military Revolution" in a nutshell, and these historians argue (admittedly over, and over, and over...) as to what the periods that should be considered "revolutionary" actually were. Informed and scholarly, this book is worth the cost from an intellectual standpoint.

"The Military Revolution Debate" is the magnus opus on the revolution in military affairs representative of early modern Europe. Editor and author Clifford Rogers presents a series of compelling articles designed to revisit one of the classic debate topics among military historians and contemporary theorists. The art and practice of warfare changed significantly during the period addressed by Rogers and others, a revolution in military affairs unlike any in previous history and only rivaled by the events of the past quarter-century.This masterpiece is a necessary addition to anyone seriously researching the revolution/evolution of military affairs in the western world. The changes that occurred in early modern Europe and discussed at length by the various authors had an unimaginable ifluence on the wars of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries and will continue to shape events far into this millenium. Rogers has collected the most serious and noteworthy essays by the foremost authorities on the subject. Readers will not be disappointed with this exceptional book.

This is an incredible book that provides a single point of reference on the major interpetations of the Military Revolution. For the Military Revolution novice, like myself, this is the book to begin research with. The hypothesisses are complimentary and provide for an easy, interesting read.