The Further Subject offers students the opportunity to explore, within a comparative context, the relationship between the armed forces and society from the end of the Thirty Years War to the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars. This century and a half was marked by almost constant European conflict, fought across the globe and drawing on, and affecting the lives of, an ever-increasing number of people. The era also saw significant developments in the ways war was practised, organised, financed, and justified. A key aim of the course is to suggest ways in which military history can be embedded within the wider framework of political, social, and cultural history, as well as within the context of the history of medicine and gender studies. It will focus primarily on Britain and France although it will consider other European states, such as Prussia, where appropriate.

We will begin with the lively historiographical debate over the ‘military revolution’, grappling with the role of the changing nature of warfare in the genesis of the modern state.  The course will provide an opportunity to examine how states sourced and resourced military manpower.  We will also consider private entrepreneurship, privateering, irregular warfare, the representation of the military in art and literature, the impact of disease on the waging of war, and the position of soldiers, sailors, veterans and prisoners of war within civil society. More generally, readings will investigate the extent to which different political systems shaped military cultures and priorities, and will think about the ways in which service and combat were experienced by military personnel.  This period saw the development of revolutionary ideas about the French nation in arms, alongside the global ascendency of British imperial force. We will evaluate the nature of these transformations. Readings include primary sources detailing legal and philosophical theories of war, alongside journals, letters, memoirs, and political correspondence recording the experience of warfare on land and sea.  Students will be encouraged to study the collections of the National Army Museum and the National Maritime Museum (both in London) and visit Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, the Royal Naval Hospital, Greenwich, and the Royal Hospital, Chelsea. While a reading knowledge of French is not required - the French source material will be provided in translation - some secondary reading will be set in French for those who wish to use or develop their reading knowledge.