Roger J. Spiller is the George C. Marshall Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Military History and former director of the Combat Studies Institute at the US Army Command and General Staff College. He is the author of An Instinct for War: Scenes from the Battlefields of History. He has also served as an advisor to Ken Burns on documentary television series on World War II and the Vietnam War.
"Few military thinkers have been able to grasp the reality of
battle like Colonel Charles Ardant du Picq. What mattered to him
were the combatants--their moral strength, their sufferings, their
fears, and their courage. His Battle Studies, which were widely
referenced during the First World War and one hundred years later
inspired John Keegan's pioneering Face of Battle, have long
remained inaccessible to Anglophone readers. Surprisingly modern,
this path-breaking book will captivate all readers interested in
the human experience of combat."--Bruno Cabanes, author of Victory
in Mourning: French Soldiers and the Transition to Civilian Life,
1918-1920"Ardant du Picq's Battle Studies stands as the first study
of human behavior at the sharp end of a modern industrial
battlefield. His focus was no less unique: the fear that ultimately
shapes performance in combat. Spiller's introduction, brilliantly
contextualizing du Picq's pioneering insight, combines with his
polished translation and annotations to make this the definitive
English version of a seminal analysis of men in war."--Dennis
Showalter, author of The Wars of German Unification and founding
editor of War in History"Colonel Ardant du Picq served in a French
army still regarded as the world's best. Decorated for valor in the
Crimean War, killed in the Franco-Prussian War, he never lived to
see its eclipse. His posthumous Battle Studies is a classic for two
reasons: it sheds important light on the brutal dilemmas of the
nineteenth-century European army, and it anticipates timeless
questions of leadership, discipline, morale, and motivation that
animate armies today as powerfully as they did in 1870. Fear,
Ardant du Picq asserted, is every unit's chief enemy, and the duty
of officers (and good troops) is to slow its progress through the
ranks while finding creative ways to win. Spiller has rescued this
unique inquiry from obscurity and caricature. Ardant du Picq never
said the things so often attributed to him--that troops must attack
under all circumstances, that morale trumps firepower--rather he
groped for the right mix of tactics and attitudes to move all arms
forward in the face of withering fire."--Geoffrey Wawro, author of
The Franco-Prussian War: The German Conquest of France in
1870-1871"Ardant du Picq's most important insight was that military
discipline operates horizontally as well as vertically. That is to
say, a soldier's comrades matter at least as much as their
commanders in determining their behavior on the battlefield. Thanks
to Spiller's admirable translation and a fine analytical
introduction to the life, career, and influence of Ardant du Picq,
Battle Studies can now enjoy the position it assuredly deserves in
the English-speaking world. Scholars in military studies, military
history, war and society, and European history, just to name a few
fields, will find this book invaluable."--Leonard V. Smith, author
of The Embattled Self: French Soldiers' Testimony of the Great
War"Spiller's fine translation of Ardant du Picq's classic is a
book that should be read by every American soldier. Du Picq
explains why soldiers act they way they do in battle and why
soldiers are not simply 'users' of technology. Only S.L.A. Marshall
can rival his explanation of the dynamics of combat and their
effect on human beings."--Robert A. Doughty, author of Pyrrhic
Victory: French Strategy and Operations in the Great War
"Spiller has given us a clear, fine translation of this minor
military classic and he provides, in an excellent introductory
chapter, an extensive analysis of du Picq's life and military
thought--one that helps us better understand this controversial and
oft-caricatured soldier and theorist."--Journal of Military
History"General readers will value this new edition du Picq's work
for its author's insights into human behavior in combat in a
distant age. Among military professionals, the book will stimulate
salutary reflection and discussion. Its editor/translator deserves
our gratitude for his last gift to military history--a definitive
English version of Battle Studies."--Michigan War Studies
Review"The perfect pairing of one of today's preeminent military
historians with one of the best volumes ever written on the human
dimension of war. . . . Spiller has made a book crafted over 140
years ago far more applicable and accessible to a new generation of
readers. . . . Battle Studies is as influential and impactful today
as when first written. Spiller has taken this powerful volume and
provided incredible context and perspective through his diligence
and expertise."--Military Review
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