Brill The Seven Years' War: Global Views: 80 (History of Warfare, 80)

In The Seven Years’ War: Global Views, Mark H. Danley, Patrick J. Speelman, and sixteen other contributors reach beyond traditional approaches to illuminate the conflict as world war. An introduction addresses the challenges of discretely defining the war. Chapters examine theaters such as the Carnatic, Bengal, the Philippines, Portugal, Senegal, and the Caribbean. Other chapters treat understudied topics such as the Anglo-Cherokee campaigns, Sweden’s participation, Ottoman neutrality, the Vatican, European perceptions of Cossacks and Kalmyks, the Enlightenment and the war, the choosing of sides in Europe and North America, social and political aspects of French and British military life, operational reconnaissance, and the war’s complex ending in western Germany. A conclusion situates the war as a marker of modernity. Contributors are in order of appearance: Juergen Luh, Armstrong Starkey, Matthew C. Ward, G.J. Bryant, Johannes Burkhardt, Gunnar Aselius, Virginia H. Aksan, Julia Osman, Ewa Anklam, Mrian Fuessel, James Searing, Richard Harding, John Oliphant, Mark H. Danley, Patrick J. Speelman, Nicholas Tracy, and Matt Schumann. Review "This collection of 18 essays, an introduction, and a conclusion by an international set of historians aims to broaden interpretations of the Seven Years' War as a global phenomenon. Transcending the traditional focuses on the Anglo-French struggle over North America and Prussia's conflicts in central Europe, topics include campaigns in the West Indies, Ottoman neutrality and modernization, Native American diplomatic practices, Swedish war aims, economic competition in Senegal, and strategic dilemmas of native rulers in India, to list a few. According to the editors, the "chapters in this book bring together narrative and analytic approaches; join operational military history with broader social, cultural, and political history; and expose aspects of the conflict that military historians have often overlooked or downplayed." What emerges is a kaleidoscope of interlocking conflicts involving a vast range of participants from Cossacks to West African merchants pursuing their own opportunities and interests with varying degrees of success. These myriad struggles and ambitions significantly shaped the course of the wars among the major European powers. Specialists in military history and 18th-century studies should ponder this complexity historically and historiographically. As a guide, the introduction is superb. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above." -- R. P. Gildrie, emeritus, Austin Peay State University in the May 2013 issue of CHOICE About the Author Mark H. Danley, Ph.D. (History, 2001), Kansas State University, is Associate Professor in University Libraries, University of Memphis. He has presented papers frequently at scholarly military history conferences and also has published on the cataloging of military-related primary source materials. Patrick J Speelman, Ph.D. (History, 2000) Temple University, is an Assistant Professor of History at the United States Merchant Marine Academy. His publications include Henry Lloyd and the Military Inheritance of the Enlightenment (Greenwood, 2002), an edited volume entitled War, Society & Enlightenment: The Works of General Lloyd (Brill 2005).