Over the last 60 years, British historian Professor Christopher Duffy
has fundamentally reshaped our understanding of warfare in the late Old
Regime. For much of the twentieth century, historians asserted that the
military forces of Old Regime Europe were stagnant, formalized, and
decorative. In this view, Old Regime armies were a lacy pastel façade
destroyed by the new military prowess of Napoleon. A specialist on the
Austrian, Prussian, Russian, and Jacobite armies of the mid-eighteenth
century, Professor Duffy demanded that we understand the armies of the
Old Regime as they were: serious and dangerous military institutions.
The Changing Face of Old Regime Warfare is a festschrift honoring
Professor Duffy's legacy of writing on this pivotal period of military
history. The book collects 16 essays by scholars from seven countries on
three continents, which together tell the story of the dynamic nature of
warfare in the Old Regime.
Topics such as cavalry tactics, divisional organization, the rise of
light forces, and the effects of war-making on society accompany primary
sources translated into English for the first time.
Throughout his career, Professor Duffy has written on a wide variety of
topics in over 20 books, from topics ranging from the Seven Years War to
the First World War, from the history of fortress warfare to the
experience of Marshal Suvorov. It is fitting then, that although
centered on eighteenth-century warfare, this book also includes chapters
which address the Napoleonic conflicts, and First World War.
The first section, Backgrounds and Retrospectives, explores the state of
historical writing on eighteenth-century warfare, as well as Professor
Duffy's contribution to it. The second section, Commanders and their
Armies, explores the field of traditional military history. It provides
coverage of tactical analyses, campaign narratives, and organizational
and doctrinal changes for the armies fighting in the Old Regime. The
third section, Voices from the Past, provides translations and analyses
of military sources which have been previously unavailable to the
public. The fourth and final section, New Perspectives, demonstrates the
varied picture which methods such as archaeology, cultural history, and
colonial history tell us about the imperial history of European states
at war. This section contains the final essay of the great American
historian Dennis Showalter, published posthumously here with the
permission of the Showalter family.
The Changing Face of Old Regime Warfare continues Professor Duffy's
legacy of studying the armies and states of Europe in the eighteenth
century, and allows a host of his colleagues to honor his fine work.
