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March 22, 2013 Kristen Neuschel (Duke University) War during the Military Revolution: The notion of an early modern military revolution has undergone significant revision in recent years. Nevertheless, many scholars agree that conditions and circumstances of warfare, if not wholly new in the sixteenth century, were novel enough by themselves to produce new strains in the body politic, strains that became acute when overlayed with religious and constitutional crisis, such as in France. This paper argues, in contrast, that certain aspects of warfare and politics in the sixteenth century can best be understood as part of much longer term and more gradual changes in the culture of violence and in warrior identity, datable in their origins to ca. 1300 and even earlier. Kristen B. Neuschel is Associate Professor of History at Duke University and currently serves as Director of the Thompson Writing Program. She is the author of Word of Honor: Interpreting Noble Culture in Sixteenth Century France (1989) and with Thomas F. X. Noble et al, Western Civilization: Beyond Boundaries, 6th edition (2010). Her current project is Living by the Sword: The Changing Culture of War, 1400-1600. Co-sponsored by the Triangle Institute for Security Studies |