What do you think?
Rate this book
Military Experience in the Age of Reason
First published in 1987. War in the 18th century was a bloody business. A line of infantry would slowly march, to the beat of a drum, into a hail of enemy fire. Whole ranks would be wiped out by cannon fire and musketry. Christopher Duffy's investigates the brutalities of the battlefield and also traces the lives of the officer to the soldier from the formative conditions of their earliest years to their violent deaths or retirement, and shows that, below their well-ordered exteriors, the armies of the Age of Reason underwent a revolutionary change from medieval to modern structures and ways of thinking.
356 pages, Hardcover
First published December 10, 1987
9 people are currently reading
332 people want to read
About the author
Christopher Duffy
48 books36 followersChristopher Duffy (born 1936) is a British military historian. Duffy read history at Balliol College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1961 with the PhD. Afterwards, he taught military history at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and the college of the British General Staff. He was secretary-general of the British Commission for Military History and vice-president of the History Society of Ireland. From 1996 to 2001, he was research professor at the De Montfort University, Leicester. Today he lives and works as a freelance author.
Duffy's special interest is the military history of the European modern age, in particular the history of the German, Prussian and Austrian armed forces. He is most famous for his writings about the Seven Years' War and especially Frederick the Great, which he called self-ironically "a product of the centuries-old British obsession with that most un-British of creatures". Duffy is fluent in six languages and has published some twenty books about military history topics, whereof several were translated into German.
Duffy's special interest is the military history of the European modern age, in particular the history of the German, Prussian and Austrian armed forces. He is most famous for his writings about the Seven Years' War and especially Frederick the Great, which he called self-ironically "a product of the centuries-old British obsession with that most un-British of creatures". Duffy is fluent in six languages and has published some twenty books about military history topics, whereof several were translated into German.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
February 22, 2020
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.
"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.
January 27, 2020
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.
May 19, 2021
If you couldn't tell I like Christopher Duffy's work. Though he writes about a variety of military history topics his primary focus is the 16th - 18th centuries and the type of warfare they fought. It's always been an area that has interested me, but I never found any historians that really grabbed my interest. Duffy has corrected that problem.
This book takes every aspect of the military experience from 1715 - 1789 and looks at it in great depth. The officer, the common soldier, the general, campaigns, battles etc. It's very readable and beautifully researched. Each of the topics I just named has it's own chapter; as do many others in the book and they all receive equal attention. It works as both a survey book for the general reader and a in-depth study for the more knowledgeable scholar. I recommend it strongly. If one is wondering about any quibbles I may have, and there always are quibbles, it would be that the book could have used some illustrations, but that's a minor one. If you are interested in this subject or just military history in general you could do far worse than buying this book.
This book takes every aspect of the military experience from 1715 - 1789 and looks at it in great depth. The officer, the common soldier, the general, campaigns, battles etc. It's very readable and beautifully researched. Each of the topics I just named has it's own chapter; as do many others in the book and they all receive equal attention. It works as both a survey book for the general reader and a in-depth study for the more knowledgeable scholar. I recommend it strongly. If one is wondering about any quibbles I may have, and there always are quibbles, it would be that the book could have used some illustrations, but that's a minor one. If you are interested in this subject or just military history in general you could do far worse than buying this book.
June 2, 2015
This is a good book but overrated. There is a wealth of information, but I fear Duffy's too reliant upon both Prussia and the importance of battle. This was not an age of decisive battles in the Austerlitz sense. In fact, few soldiers ever saw battles on the scale of Fontenoy. So I am a little annoyed that he spent over 100 pages on battle and not other aspects, but I guess Duffy is working in the shadow of the overrated Keegan. Also, Duffy does a lot of work with the Prussians, so they show up a lot in this book. Be ready to rarely hear anything from Russia, Italy, Spain, or Holland. I know records are scant (or not in English), but it seems disingenuous to assume that you are covering the entire era. Also, Duffy seems defensive about the era's bad points, such as discipline. All in all this is a good book, but not a masterpiece.
August 9, 2024
An informative, although relatively niche history of the style of warfare in the 18th century. The author assumes some familiarity with the military campaigns of the era, but it's likely not essential. Some highlights:
Powdered wigs and mustaches were a must. Troops with the best mustaches were placed on the outside of the unit, when marching, so the unit looked most impressive.
Most regiments (fighting units) were thought to basically have one battle in them before the PTSD got so bad that the soldiers would just flee at the start of the next combat.
Many commissions were bought and it was considered lucky to have a rich commander, as it made it more likely the soldier in question would actually get paid.
The French and Russians were considered the best armies to get invaded by, as they were the most dapper and least likely to set everything on fire.
All in all, warfare has been around since the dawn of history and I find it surprising how variety there is in the way it has been waged. Humans are strange animals especially at their best and worst.
Powdered wigs and mustaches were a must. Troops with the best mustaches were placed on the outside of the unit, when marching, so the unit looked most impressive.
Most regiments (fighting units) were thought to basically have one battle in them before the PTSD got so bad that the soldiers would just flee at the start of the next combat.
Many commissions were bought and it was considered lucky to have a rich commander, as it made it more likely the soldier in question would actually get paid.
The French and Russians were considered the best armies to get invaded by, as they were the most dapper and least likely to set everything on fire.
All in all, warfare has been around since the dawn of history and I find it surprising how variety there is in the way it has been waged. Humans are strange animals especially at their best and worst.
May 17, 2018
Good overview of the 18th century military experience. Comprehensive list of conflicts in the appendix. Biggest takeaway for me was how this era was the transformation from the military still being steeped in medieval traditions (Colonels and Captains essentially still owning their regiments and companies) to a more modern structure (the professionalization of artillery, the very early development of general staffs).
It's on my re-read pile, but not high on it, largely due to the fact that the time period covered is slightly before my main interests.
It's on my re-read pile, but not high on it, largely due to the fact that the time period covered is slightly before my main interests.
April 24, 2025
A terrific introduction to the world of 18th century European warfare which, for all the fancy uniforms and lace, was as grim and brutal as any other. Thoroughly referenced with contemporary material, it is far from dry though and Mr Duffy's humour shines through. I've been meaning to read my copy for some time but was finally encouraged (ordered?) to by the brilliant new podcast on 18th century warfare: 'Prime & Load'.
October 24, 2025
Now I understand the level of reverence in the military history circles around Christopher Duffy. This book is a fantastic example on how to share academic historical research to the wider public without losing any accuracy in the process in a amenable way.
Amazing book and I'll definitely be looking out for Duffy's other works.
Amazing book and I'll definitely be looking out for Duffy's other works.
June 6, 2018
Good overview of warfare from this period. The author does not neglect the common soldier and takes into consideration their motivations behind enlisting and fighting as well as the men who commanded them.
July 16, 2019
Excellent overview of the European military culture.
September 29, 2020
Vivid and structural overview of the soldierly experience in the 1715-1789 period, described both in social and military operational terms.
October 13, 2016
While the book is obviously dated (the word "savages" shows up more often than I'm entirely comfortable with) and Duffy shows a bit of ignorance about wars in the Americas, this is still a great book that does a good job synthesizing a lot of information. I also found it to be a more interesting read than his other books.
Read
April 19, 2012This was a book loaded with information. I like to take simple notes while reading, and I filled an entire sheet front and back with notations! Well worth he read although it took a while due to all the note taking/contemplation.
July 19, 2016
An excellent overview by a respected historian of the period that gives real insight into the nature of the various armies active in Europe in the mid 18th Century.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews