War in the Nineteenth Century (E-Book) von Jeremy Black

Preface viii

1 Introduction: Framing the Problems 1

2 Napoleonic Background 5

3 18151849 27

4 The 1850s 60

5 Naval Power and Warfare 71

6 Outside Europe, 18151860 96

7 18601871 107

8 18721902 135

9 The Victory of the West, 18601913 151

10 Towards the First World War, 19031914 172

11 War and Society 187

12 Conclusions 204

Notes 208

Further Reading 232

Index 236

Leading military historian Jeremy Black offers the reader a twenty-first century approach to this period, particularly through his focus on the dynamic drive provided by different forms of military goals, or "tasking". This allows echoes with modern warfare to come to the fore and provides a fuller understanding of a period sometimes considered solely as background to the total war of 1914-45. Alongside state-to-state warfare and the move toward "total war", Black's emphasis on different military goals gives due weight to trans-oceanic conflict at the expense of non-Europeans. Irregular, internal and asymmetric war are all considered, ranging from local insurgencies to imperial expeditions, and provide a deliberate shift from Western-centricity.

At the very cutting edge of its field, this book is a must read for all students and scholars of military history and its related disciplines.