Books and the British Army in the Age of the American Revolution

Cover

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Title Page, Copyright, Dedication

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Contents/Maps and Illustrations

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pp. vii-ix

Preface

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pp. xi-xiii

This is a book about books—the books that shaped the British army in the age of the American Revolution. Although historians have understood that books were important to the eighteenth-century British army and its officer corps, they have never studied comprehensively the books on war that...

INTRODUCTION: A French Connection

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pp. 3-63

Books were essential to the eighteenth-century British army and its officer corps. Successive governments relied on books to set standards for the army: to define the obligations of officers in serving their king and country; to prepare officers to lead the combat arms, particularly the artillery and engineers...

PART I: Officers and Their Books

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pp. 65-135

The following sketches analyze the careers and libraries of forty-two eighteenth-century British army officers whose preferences for books on war have formed the basis for this study. These officers have not been chosen at random and cannot be considered representative of eighteenth-century...

PART II: Books Preferred

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pp. 137-233

British army officers who served in the age of the American Revolution had literally hundreds of books on war to choose among: histories of campaigns and battles, treatises on engineering and artillery, reflections on the art of war, and works from the ancient world as well as specialized, contemporary...

PART III: Books Not Taken

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pp. 235-266

There were many books on war available in eighteenthcentury Britain that did not appear in our officers’ records. Our officers very likely relied on some of the books that escaped their lists, inventories, and catalogues. We cannot be sure which titles they deliberately ignored and which titles...

Appendixes

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pp. 267-307

Bibliography of Manuscripts, Catalogues, and Scholarly Works

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pp. 309-320

Index

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pp. 321-325