War and the Rise of the State: The Military Foundations of Modern Politics"In a sweeping study of the West over the last 500 years, Bruce Porter shows the astonishing range of warfare's modernizing effects on states. Warfare unifies, rallies, and bureaucratizes both states and their populaces; warfare triggers nationalism, reform movements, and revolutions. More positively, through its inevitable mobilization of citizenry, war has been a contributing cause of virtually all major social movements and even democracy. Porter examines major civil wars as well as international conflicts, showing how they served as catalysts for the New Monorachies, absolutist states, nation-states, totalitarian states, and contemporary industrial and post-industrial states. Finishing with an examination of the impact on the American state of the Civil War, the two World Wars, and the Cold War, Porter reveals our own paradox: pro-military conservatives denounce big government, forgetting that military might presupposes political power; anti-military liberals embraces to the power of the state to accomplish social ends while hesitating to acknowledge the military origins of that power."--The dust-jacket flaps. |
Contents
War and the Passing of the Medieval Age | 23 |
The Military Revolution and the Early Modern State | 63 |
War and the Rise of the NationState | 105 |
Copyright | |
4 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
administration American Arthur Marwick became Bolshevik Brian Downing Britain British bureaucracy Cambridge central century Charles Charles Tilly Christopher Duffy cited civil conflict conscription defeat defense Democracy Democratic Dutch Early Modern economic effect emergence empire England Europe European expenditures factor federal fiscal forces formation France French Revolution Geoffrey Parker Germany growth Habsburg Habsburg Spain historians Hitler impact imperial increased industrial internal Italy labor Lenin levée en masse London mass Max Weber medieval ment military power Military Revolution million mobilization monarchy Napoleon nation-state nationalist Nazi Nazi Germany nobility organization Origins Oxford percent political postwar Princeton provinces reforms regime Renaissance Republic revenue Revolutionary rise role Russian Russian Civil War Simon Schama social society soldiers sovereignty Soviet Spain standing army structure Sweden Swedish Swiss taxation tion totalitarian traditional trans troops Tudor Union United University Press violence warfare wars wartime welfare World World War II York