Reviews for The new paganism

The average rating for The new paganism based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-07-15 00:00:00 Bradley Leifermann I know relatively little about the wars and battles of the 18th century, but the military history of Europe's Ancien Régime is a subject that has always interested me. Christopher Duffy's The Military Experience in the Age of Reason is a fantastic introductory book to this fascinating period of history. In the eloquent words of Russell F. Weigley, "we [now] turn to the history of that chapter in the chronicles of war that was quintessentially the age of battles: romantic, even glorious in their spectacles of brightly colored uniforms, glittering sabers and bayonets, blaring musical battle-calls, charging men and horses; inspiring in their instances of courage and devotion to duty; horrible beyond imagination in the wreckage of crushed and mutilated bodies they left behind; futile in their habitual failure to achieve that complete destruction of the enemy army…" This book focuses on the experiences of war. It is not a history of the wars campaigns and battles, though there is a brief list of these in the appendix. In fact, Duffy assumes a certain amount of prior knowledge on the part of the reader when he casually tosses out the names of people, places, and battles. I read this book with the intent of learning about the warfare of this period in general, before diving into the more specific military histories, and thus was only familiar with the major characters and battles of the age. While I had no trouble reading and understanding, I'm sure those who know more about the history would be able to appreciate this book more than I can right now. In Part One, Duffy goes into great detail in observing and analyzing the different components of the armies; that is, the officers, the private soldiers, and the generals. In looking at the officers, Duffy emphasizes the importance of the officer's background. One trend I found particularly interesting was how many aspects of 18th century armies were still feudal in nature. An interesting example of this can be seen in that the rank of captain and colonel were above all proprietary ranks rather than functional ranks. That is, in many armies captains and colonels were essentially the owners of their companies and regiments, respectively. The actual tactical and strategic groups were the platoons and inner-company divisions along with battalions, which were led by NCOs and lieutenants in the first case, and majors and lieutenant-colonels in the second. In some cases, these proprietary functions extended through to the Napoleonic Wars. After discussing the officers, Duffy focuses on the rank and file. Here he covers a number of interesting aspects of the life of a private soldier, including recruitment, discipline, training, and equipment for both infantry and cavalry. Following this chapter, there is a brief but interesting section on the commanding officers. Throughout these chapters, Duffy makes sure to treat the men as people of their time. Once the composition of the armies is dealt with, Duffy spends most of the rest of the book covering campaigns and battles. Here Duffy does his best to look past the romantic shrouds of myth and legend and instead piece together an approximation of what war was really like in the 18th century. There are too many details for me to summarize here, but I will highlight the points that I found to be most interesting. Even though battle is what often receives the most attention, generals tried to avoid giving battle as often as they could. In fact, Duffy claims that "Few commanders were willing to exercise the degree of freedom that was actually allowed to them…" (156). Nevertheless, battles did occur, but when they did, they were far less structured than the parade-ground tactics of the day would leave one to believe. The difficulty of moving in tight formation across broken terrain while under fire made the proper execution of drill quite rare. Furthermore, once troops engaged each other, their fire was often far less potent and regulated than might be expected. The commanding officers and generals were often helpless; the direction of the battle often ebbed and flowed at the whims of the troops independent of the decisions of the commanders. Taking all these complications into consideration, it is a wonder that anything ever went according to plan! The text is liberally sprinkled with excerpts from first-hand accounts which are smoothly integrated into the text. They serve to support Duffy's analysis, rather than overwhelm it, as is proper. While mostly from German and French sources, there are some English, Russian, and Spanish accounts as well. Oftentimes, they are quite entertaining and/or eye-opening. Take for example, "By custom the tallest troops were allocated to the leading ranks. According to a Brunswick drillbook of 1751: All the tall men with moustaches are placed in the front rank, with due attention being paid in the dressing to a uniformity of appearance - thus we do not like to place an old soldier next to a much younger one, or someone with a thin, half-starved face next to an individual with a strong countenance. The flanks are most in evidence when the soldiers march past, and so they must be covered by our most handsome men with good faces. Men who have moustaches, but are less good looking, are placed in the second rank, but if there are not enough moustaches to fill the whole rank, they must be positioned on one of flanks. The shortest men go to the third rank, and the tallest men without moustaches to the fourth" (111) Overall, this was a fantastic book for me. The author's scholarship is superb. Not only is he detached and objective but the depth of research is tremendous. Witness the twelve page bibliography and the fact that most of the sources are not in English. One of the only complaints I have is that the focus is a rather narrow (Duffy focuses almost exclusively on the conflicts in the mid-century). However, considering the quality of the text, I am more than content with what is covered. In conclusion, this is a fine book. I would heartily recommend it to anyone looking to learn about 18th century warfare.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-03-14 00:00:00 Patrick Fernandez This is an informative and accessible work of history, broken out into relatively short sections for easy reading and reference. It answers such questions as: who were the soldiers and officers in 18th century Europe, where they did come from, what motivated them, how were armies structured, what was going on campaign like, what did infantry, cavalry and artillery each do in battle and out of it, what was medical care like, how did commanders disseminate orders to the troops, etc. Helpfully, Duffy quotes liberally from period accounts and authorities. As he comments at one point, this book is about the military experience rather than the details of strategy or logistics (and it's definitely not a narrative), but for a relatively compact book it covers a lot of ground. And it does so with engaging writing that's easy to read and doesn't require extensive pre-existing knowledge of the topic. It is Eurocentric and a bit snooty about it (Duffy comes very close to calling people from the Americas and the Middle East barbarians if he doesn't outright say it). But if your interest is Europe, it is an excellent introduction to anyone looking for a better understanding of warfare in the period.