Table of Contents

Introduction
Note on Dates
Part One. The Profession of Officership and the Birth of Modern War
1. The Return of the Legions: Gustavus Adolphus and Breitenfeld
2. The Limits of the New Legions: Lützen and After
3. Under the Lily Banners: Rocroi
4. The Army of the Sun King
5. Marlborough's Battles: Blenheim, Ramillies, Oudenarde, and Malplaquet
6. The Emergence of the Great Powers of Eastern Europe
7. The Rise of Naval Power
Part Two. The EIghteenth Century: The Classical Epoch of Modern War
8. The Battles of Frederick the Great
9. The French and British Armed Forces from the Rhine to the St. Lawrence
10. Toward Wars of Nations: The War of American Independence
11. Prelude to Revolution
Part Three. Thunderstrokes of Battle: The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars
12. The French Revolution: Transformation and Continuity in War
13. Sea Power and Empire
14. The Climax of Napoleonic War: To Austerlitz and Jena-Auerstädt
15. The Gradual Eclipse of the Battle of Annihilation; The Rise of the War of Attrition
16. Campaigns of Exhaustion and Attrition
17. The Resurgence of Military Professionalism
18. The Downfall of Genius
19. The End of an Age: Waterloo
20. On the Future of War
Bibliographical Notes
Index

Promotional Information

"One of the most interesting, important, and ambitious books about the conduct, and perhaps the ultimate futility, of war." —Gunther E. Rothenberg

About the Author

Russell F. Weigley (1930-2004) was Professor of History at Temple University and author of A Great Civil War (winner of the Lincoln Prize); The American Way of War; History of the United States Army; and Eisenhower's Lieutenants: The Campaign of France and Germany, 1944-1945 (all published by IUP). He lived in Philadelphia.

Reviews

""What Russell F. Weigley writes, the rest of us read. The Age of Battles is a persuasive reminder that even in the age of 'rational' warfare, one can honestly wonder why war seemed an unavoidable policy choice.""

"What Russell F. Weigley writes, the rest of us read. The Age of Battles is a persuasive reminder that even in the age of 'rational' warfare, one can honestly wonder why war seemed an unavoidable policy choice."

""What Russell F. Weigley writes, the rest of us read. The Age of Battles is a persuasive reminder that even in the age of 'rational' warfare, one can honestly wonder why war seemed an unavoidable policy choice.""
"What Russell F. Weigley writes, the rest of us read. The Age of Battles is a persuasive reminder that even in the age of 'rational' warfare, one can honestly wonder why war seemed an unavoidable policy choice."

From Gustavus Adolphus's 1631 victory at Breitenfeld in the Thirty Years War to Napoleon's 1815 defeat at Waterloo, the primary instrument of military strategy was the grand-scale battle waged with the goal of winning a political as well as military decision. In this first-class study of the battles of Gustavus, Charles II, Louis XIV, Marlborough, Nelson, Napoleon and Wellington, Weigley ( The American Way of War ) brings into sharp focus the irony that warfare throughout the period was most often a matter of prolonged, indecisive struggle that expressed a bankruptcy of national policy. The book traces the development of the professional officer class during the two-century era and the evolution of command and control techniques in the field. Weigley discusses the limitation of violence in battle through the restraints of international law and custom, and analyzes the surprising fact that military tactics, technology and organization remained essentially the same from Breitenfeld to Waterloo. History Book Club main selection. (May)