Civilians and War in Europe 1618-1815 (Eighteenth Century Worlds), edited by Erica Charters Eve Rosenhaft, Hannah Smith

• Price: $120
• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Liverpool University Press (June 15, 2012)
• ISBN-13: 978-1846317118

Civilians and War in Europe 1618–1815 is a comprehensive, interdisciplinary look at the role of civilians in early modern warfare, from the Thirty Years War to the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Drawing on works by scholars in art, literature, history, and political theory, the contributors to this volume explore the continuities and transformations in warfare over the course of two hundred years, examining topics central to civilian and war dynamics, including incarceration, cultures of plunder, billeting, and wartime atrocities, in addition to the larger legal practices and philosophical underpinnings of warfare and its aftermath. Showcasing the complex ways civilians were involved in war—not just as anguished sufferers, but as individuals who fought back, who profited, and who negotiated for their own needs—Civilians and War in Europe probes what it meant to be a civilian in countries deeply involved in conflict.
A superior example of an edited collection, containing essays of real importance and quality, and arranged in an illuminating way. -- Professor Hamish Scott
An innovative and coherent collection of a consistently very high standard. -- Professor Tim Blanning
About the Editors:
Erica Charters is a university lecturer in the history of medicine at the University of Oxford.
Eve Rosenhaft is professor of German historical studies and director of the Eighteenth-Century Worlds Research Centre at the University of Liverpool.
Hannah Smith is a tutorial fellow and university lecturer in history at St. Hilda’s College at the University of Oxford.

Amid a Warring World: American Foreign Relations, 1775-1815 (Issues in the History of American Foreign Relations) by Robert W. Smith

• Price: $34.95

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Potomac Books Inc. (August 31, 2012)
• ISBN-13: 978-1597975216

The period between 1775 and 1815 could be called the “critical period” of American foreign relations. At no time in American history was the existence of the republic in greater physical peril. Questions of foreign policy dominated American public life in a way unequalled until WorldWar II. From the American Revolution through the War of 1812, the United States was a small power confronted by great powers hostile to each other and to the United States. Furthermore, the era was dominated by two great revolutions that reshaped the Atlantic world.The problem for American diplomats and foreign policymakers was to preserve the United States, both as an independent nation and as a republic, in a decidedly unequal contest with the great powers.

According to Robert W. Smith, the question of American power lay at the heart of the debate over independence. The radicals believed that the American spirit and market were enough, and favored rapid independence and an aggressive promotion of neutral rights. The moderates doubted American power, and were inclined to move slowly and only with assured French assistance. By the end of the American Revolution, the moderates had won the debate. But their victory masked the defects of the confederation, until the diplomatic humiliations of the 1780s forced the United States to create a government that could properly harness American economic and military power.The debate over the power of the United States to reshape a hostile world remains as central today as in 1776.

About the Author
Robert W. Smith is assistant professor of history at Worcester State College, where he teaches the history of American foreign relations. He is the author of Keeping the Republic: Ideology and Early American Diplomacy and is a contributing editor of the online edition of American Foreign Relations since 1600: A Guide to the Literature. He lives in Marshfield, Massachusetts.

CHASSEURS A' CHEVAL, TOME 1: 1779 - 1815 (Officers and Soldiers) by Ludovic Letrun and Jean-Marie Mongin

• Price: $19.95
• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: Histoire and Collections (January 2012)
• ISBN-13: 978-2352501992

If one attributes the mounted infantry to the creation of "Fischer's voluntary infantry company," as has traditionally been done, then one would have to wait until 1757 for the first units to be organized. Horsemen make their presence in the royal cavalry in 1776 with the creation of a mounted infantry squadron attached to each dragoon regiment.
Our study commences with the "first truly" mounted infantrymen described by the 1779 ruling. Presented are those of 12 regiments from 1784, and the 26 who would fight during the Revolution, in addition to those from Valmy at Marengo... from the Constituent to the Consulat, without forgetting the voluntary units who would come to support the enlisted units.
Volume 2 to follow will examine the regiments from the periods of the Consulat and the Empire.

Waterloo 1815: Battle Story, by Gregory Fremont Barnes (Author)
• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: The History Press (March 1, 2012)
• ISBN-13: 978-0752464411

The Battle of Waterloo is one of the most important moments in military history. As the might of the French Empire under the leadership of the Emperor Napoleon faced the Coalition army under Duke of Wellington and Gerhard von Blucher for one last time. The battle saw the culmination of a long campaign to destroy Napoleon's forces and halt the growth of the French Empire. Both sides fought bitterly and Wellington later remarked that 'it was the nearest-run thing you ever saw in your life'. Both armies lost over 20,000 men on the battlefield that day, but it was the coalition that emerged victorious in the end. Wellington's army counter-attacked and threw the French troops into disarray as the fled from the field. The coalition forces entered France and restored Louis XVIII to the throne and Napoleon was exiled to the island of Saint Helena, where he later died. Waterloo was a resounding victory for the British Army and changed the course of European history. This Battle Story tells you everything you need to know about this critical battle.