The concept of 'total war' in the Revolutionary-Napoleonic period
The use of the term 'total war' with reference to pre-twentieth-century military conflicts has become a matter of some urgency and controversy amid nineteenth-century historians. It has been made all the more so for Napoleonic scholars by the recent appearance of David Bell's thought-...
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
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SAGE Publications
2008
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| Summary: | The use of the term 'total war' with reference to pre-twentieth-century military conflicts has become a matter of some urgency and controversy amid nineteenth-century historians. It has been made all the more so for Napoleonic scholars by the recent appearance of David Bell's thought-provoking book <em>The First Total War</em>. The article attempts to counter and nuance some of Bell's major claims for the applicability of the term, through a discussion of its pertinence to the ideological and political conflicts of the Revolutionary-Napoleonic period, alongside the questions it evinces in technological and military terms. |
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