Review

An unceasing challenge for history teachers is how to keep up with current scholarship, especially works by authors whose primary language is not English. The European Science Foundation sponsors a series of books devoted to exploring "the origins of the modern state in Europe," under the editorship of Wim Blockmans and Jean-Phillipe Genet. The book under review here, the seventh of the series, suggests that "interstate rivalries and conflicts were at the heart not only of the demarcation of territories, but also of the ever-growing need to mobilize resources for warfare" (p v). To elaborate upon this theme, the editor (Phillippe Contamine) has assembled a stellar group of scholars of international repute, whose works have not always been readily accessible to those teaching history in North America. Rarely do anthologies rest upon such well designed research programs. Working groups were formed from diverse cohorts of scholars, who in turn hammered out a common nomenclature, constructed a conceptual framework, and sought to reconcile differing methodologies to the purpose of the volume. This hard work has paid off. An instructor may with relative ease glean generalizations about how war affected state formation and vice versa, and incorporate this information into lesson plans and lectures without much danger of contradiction or confusing one's students. In short, this book assists the teacher in locating, reading, and integrating recent scholarship on a topic that is relevant to political scientists and geographers as well as historians.	1
The authors draw almost exclusively on secondary sources, and have read more widely than deeply. Eclecticism is to be expected in such a volume, but inevitably this creates gaps. For example, Jeremy Black has published a score or so of monographs that relate to the theme of this book, yet only a pair of briefer works by Black are used. Anthony Molho's pioneering work on war and the structure of the Renaissance city-state, central to the historiography of this field of study, is entirely ignored. Helmut Koenigsberger's findings regarding representative assemblies, states and the ability to wage war is barely recognized by the citation of one of his more peripheral essays. More examples abound. In fairness to the editors, though, such a work as this, to remain manageable in scale, cannot afford (or intend) to be too original (by introducing new evidence from primary sources) or too comprehensive (by citing the full range of secondary works). Nevertheless, some of the omissions are bound to strike the reader as rather odd. Similarly the volume tilts in the direction of Catholic monarchs and princes at the expense of Protestant states and representative assembles. One of the contributors alludes to the fact that those urban states in which estates and the reformed religion flourished differed markedly from the princely Catholic states in their structures and ability to wage war (pp 77, 80). Another area in which the book marches to its own drummer is in its insistence in marching out of step with recent and persuasive interpretations that emphasize the tenacious survival of military obligations that originated in feudal Europe, the importance of personal connection and patronage in the recruitment of early modern armies, and the stubborn persistence of familial and clannish allegiances in European conflicts.	2
Putting the above qualifications aside, some exceptionally insightful essays appear between these covers. Jean Meyer's Braudellian mapping out of "States Roads, Armies, and the Organization of Space," shows how the state overcame "the differential permeability" of proximity and space. Physical mastery of distance, via communication, transportation and technology, enabled the state to exercise greater control of time, and with more precision. Not only were frontiers grasped through cartography, but those borders could be enforced militarily more quickly. The modern state could not be born without domination of its "space-time factor." Luis Ribot Garcia, in a case study of Spain, charts how the state drew upon human resources to fight wars and how those systems of recruitment evolved. Norman Housley (the only representative of Anglo-American scholarship included in this volume) deftly places patriotism and "nationalism" in a context uncolored by the configurations and ideologies of 20th century nation-states. Heinz Duchhardt's learned examination of "War and International Law" from the 1500s into the 1700s indirectly sheds light on troubles in our contemporary world. Given the emphases on geography and the projection of state power on a global scale, Jaap Bruijn's explanation of the role of navies explains why the competition among states occurred so frequently upon the seas. Contributions from editor Contamine, Maria Nadia Covini, Jan Lindegren, Bernhard Kroener and Francoise Autrand likewise provoke our imaginations and help sketch out the contours of the state from the 13th through the 18th century.	3
Augusta State University Mark Charles Fissel

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