A behind-the-scenes look at writing Warfare in the Global Middle Ages by one of its co-authors.
By David Bachrach
Bernie and I had never considered or even discussed the possibility of writing a global history of warfare, or even one that “merely” covered Eurasia and the Mediterranean world. Our first foray into this type of work was in 2014, when we pitched the idea to Routledge that would eventually become Warfare in Medieval Europe. That book took almost two years to write because of the need to synthesize a vast range of scholarship outside of our own areas of specialization. Happily for us, the response to the volume was very positive, and we were asked to write a second edition, which again took a considerable amount of time.
Right about the time the second edition was ready to go to press, I happened to write to Nic Morton to ask him to review an article manuscript, and he had a request in turn. He and Kristin Skottki were starting up a new series for Routledge on “Global Histories Before Globalisation” and he asked if Bernie and I would consider doing a volume on warfare.
My initial reaction was to decline given all of the time that had gone into expanding our areas of knowledge in the Warfare in Medieval Europe volume and what would surely be an even bigger commitment for this book. But when I mentioned the idea to Bernie, he was all for it. He particularly liked the idea of considering parallel developments and cross-pollination in Europe and East Asia after reading the work of David Graff.
Of course, there were enormous challenges, not least that we did not have any real models for conceptualizing the text. Several global histories of the pre-modern world had appeared recently but did not offer us much guidance. The multi-authored volumes eschewed a thematic format. Even the collection of essays in the Cambridge History of Warfare, which provided a wealth of detail on a number of topics, particularly for Asia and Europe, did not offer a synthesis. The single-authored volumes, which did have thematic elements, largely ignored military matters.
Ultimately, we decided that a thematic approach similar to the one we had used in Warfare in Medieval Europe would allow us to address questions that were particularly apropos for a global history, namely parallel developments and regional inter-relationships as expressed through population movements as well as the transmission of goods and ideas.
The choice of themes was dictated, in large part, by our own research interests. Two key areas, for which we are best known, are the examination of the nuts and bolts of military operations through the analysis of logistics, and source criticism. The study of logistics, properly understood, touches on all aspects of society and includes not only the provisioning of armies on campaign with food and materiel, but also the development and maintenance of a transportation infrastructure and systems of defenses. The problems of logistics also provided an exceptionally important point of contrast between sedentary and pastoral populations. This was true not only for the Eurasian steppe, but also in Africa and in the Americas.
The topic of source criticism similarly offered opportunities for comparison within and between societies across the globe. The first step, however, was to develop the broadest possible understanding of the sources that were available for the study of warfare across the globe. Specialists in the history of medieval warfare are well aware that both the types and quantity of source materials vary considerably not only over the course of the medieval millennium, but also over space. These variations within the compass of medieval Europe are dwarfed, however, by those found across the globe. Ultimately, we devoted an entire chapter to a discussion of sources, the strategies employed by scholars to make use of them, and ways that previously underexploited sources could be used to greater effect.
This discussion of the types of sources that shed light on warfare led to two other questions that we had to address in depth in a way that was not necessary in our publications that focused on medieval Europe. The first of these was the entire problem of “medieval” in a global context. The second key problem was the state of the field regarding military matters in the period that we chose to address.
It is now well understood, of course, that the Middle Ages are a construct introduced by 14th-century writers in Italy to define themselves as living in a new golden age. Medieval has no real content even for Europe, particularly since the development and expansion of the model of Late Antiquity has slowly eradicated the pernicious “dark age” conceit, at least among historians working in the period before the twelfth century.
Despite the lack of relevance of “medieval” even for Europe, the terminology has been adopted by scholars around the world to describe South and East Asia, and Africa. So too has the bastard offspring of medievalism, namely the construct of “feudalism”.
Ultimately, we concluded that there was no unifying theme that could cover the entire world, much less encompass a global history over a period of more than a millennium. We decided instead to ask how societies across the world responded to the challenges imposed by warfare in the period that corresponded roughly to the millennium between the dissolution of the Roman Empire in the West and the broad introduction of gunpowder weapons across the globe in the sixteenth century. However, in many cases we found it necessary to consider both earlier and later periods of development as well.
We also found that the study of warfare is very uneven. Even within Europe, certain regions have benefitted from scholarly attention to a much greater extent than others. This can be seen, for example, in a comparison of the volume of research on Anglo-Norman warfare as contrasted with military matters in the early medieval German kingdom. In other regions of the world, such as in East Asia, it was not until the turn of the millennium that military matters became a major scholarly focus. For much of Africa and the Americas, the study of warfare remains in its infancy. We decided to include a lengthy discussion of this imbalance in the scholarship both to give a sense to our readers of what currently is known, and also to offer suggestions about desiderata for future research.
After some trial and error, we ended up dividing the book into four main sections. The first of these is intended to orient readers to what is known and what potentially can be known about warfare across the globe during the long millennium treated in the volume. The second section addresses the question of who fought in various societies and is divided into two chapters that consider in turn defensive and offensive military operations. The third section considers technology and logistics, while the fourth addresses the ways in which societies planned and prepared for war. We also included a number of excurses on topics that would not fit neatly into a single chapter.
To an even greater degree than our book on medieval warfare, we depended throughout on the guidance of a vast number of specialists in areas far outside our own areas of expertise, many of whom responded quite generously to our emails. Nevertheless, we undoubtedly are guilty of numerous errors of omission and commission. It was our hope, aside from benefitting personally from intellectual exploration, to offer a starting point for scholars to engage in more and deeper cooperation across regions. I think we accomplished that goal.
Bernie did not live to see the publication of the work. He passed away a couple of weeks after we completed the volume, following a brief illness. The book is dedicated to his memory and is a fitting tribute to his amazing career and continuous desire to learn more about pretty much everything.
Warfare in the Global Middle Ages, by David S. Bachrach and Bernard S. Bachrach, is published today by Routledge. You can buy a copy through the publisher’s website, Amazon.com, Amazon.ca and Amazon.co.uk.
David Bachrach is a Professor at the University of New Hampshire, where he researches medieval military history, particularly in England and Germany.
A behind-the-scenes look at writing Warfare in the Global Middle Ages by one of its co-authors.
By David Bachrach
Bernie and I had never considered or even discussed the possibility of writing a global history of warfare, or even one that “merely” covered Eurasia and the Mediterranean world. Our first foray into this type of work was in 2014, when we pitched the idea to Routledge that would eventually become Warfare in Medieval Europe. That book took almost two years to write because of the need to synthesize a vast range of scholarship outside of our own areas of specialization. Happily for us, the response to the volume was very positive, and we were asked to write a second edition, which again took a considerable amount of time.
Right about the time the second edition was ready to go to press, I happened to write to Nic Morton to ask him to review an article manuscript, and he had a request in turn. He and Kristin Skottki were starting up a new series for Routledge on “Global Histories Before Globalisation” and he asked if Bernie and I would consider doing a volume on warfare.
My initial reaction was to decline given all of the time that had gone into expanding our areas of knowledge in the Warfare in Medieval Europe volume and what would surely be an even bigger commitment for this book. But when I mentioned the idea to Bernie, he was all for it. He particularly liked the idea of considering parallel developments and cross-pollination in Europe and East Asia after reading the work of David Graff.
Of course, there were enormous challenges, not least that we did not have any real models for conceptualizing the text. Several global histories of the pre-modern world had appeared recently but did not offer us much guidance. The multi-authored volumes eschewed a thematic format. Even the collection of essays in the Cambridge History of Warfare, which provided a wealth of detail on a number of topics, particularly for Asia and Europe, did not offer a synthesis. The single-authored volumes, which did have thematic elements, largely ignored military matters.
Ultimately, we decided that a thematic approach similar to the one we had used in Warfare in Medieval Europe would allow us to address questions that were particularly apropos for a global history, namely parallel developments and regional inter-relationships as expressed through population movements as well as the transmission of goods and ideas.
The choice of themes was dictated, in large part, by our own research interests. Two key areas, for which we are best known, are the examination of the nuts and bolts of military operations through the analysis of logistics, and source criticism. The study of logistics, properly understood, touches on all aspects of society and includes not only the provisioning of armies on campaign with food and materiel, but also the development and maintenance of a transportation infrastructure and systems of defenses. The problems of logistics also provided an exceptionally important point of contrast between sedentary and pastoral populations. This was true not only for the Eurasian steppe, but also in Africa and in the Americas.
The topic of source criticism similarly offered opportunities for comparison within and between societies across the globe. The first step, however, was to develop the broadest possible understanding of the sources that were available for the study of warfare across the globe. Specialists in the history of medieval warfare are well aware that both the types and quantity of source materials vary considerably not only over the course of the medieval millennium, but also over space. These variations within the compass of medieval Europe are dwarfed, however, by those found across the globe. Ultimately, we devoted an entire chapter to a discussion of sources, the strategies employed by scholars to make use of them, and ways that previously underexploited sources could be used to greater effect.
This discussion of the types of sources that shed light on warfare led to two other questions that we had to address in depth in a way that was not necessary in our publications that focused on medieval Europe. The first of these was the entire problem of “medieval” in a global context. The second key problem was the state of the field regarding military matters in the period that we chose to address.
It is now well understood, of course, that the Middle Ages are a construct introduced by 14th-century writers in Italy to define themselves as living in a new golden age. Medieval has no real content even for Europe, particularly since the development and expansion of the model of Late Antiquity has slowly eradicated the pernicious “dark age” conceit, at least among historians working in the period before the twelfth century.
Despite the lack of relevance of “medieval” even for Europe, the terminology has been adopted by scholars around the world to describe South and East Asia, and Africa. So too has the bastard offspring of medievalism, namely the construct of “feudalism”.
Ultimately, we concluded that there was no unifying theme that could cover the entire world, much less encompass a global history over a period of more than a millennium. We decided instead to ask how societies across the world responded to the challenges imposed by warfare in the period that corresponded roughly to the millennium between the dissolution of the Roman Empire in the West and the broad introduction of gunpowder weapons across the globe in the sixteenth century. However, in many cases we found it necessary to consider both earlier and later periods of development as well.
We also found that the study of warfare is very uneven. Even within Europe, certain regions have benefitted from scholarly attention to a much greater extent than others. This can be seen, for example, in a comparison of the volume of research on Anglo-Norman warfare as contrasted with military matters in the early medieval German kingdom. In other regions of the world, such as in East Asia, it was not until the turn of the millennium that military matters became a major scholarly focus. For much of Africa and the Americas, the study of warfare remains in its infancy. We decided to include a lengthy discussion of this imbalance in the scholarship both to give a sense to our readers of what currently is known, and also to offer suggestions about desiderata for future research.
After some trial and error, we ended up dividing the book into four main sections. The first of these is intended to orient readers to what is known and what potentially can be known about warfare across the globe during the long millennium treated in the volume. The second section addresses the question of who fought in various societies and is divided into two chapters that consider in turn defensive and offensive military operations. The third section considers technology and logistics, while the fourth addresses the ways in which societies planned and prepared for war. We also included a number of excurses on topics that would not fit neatly into a single chapter.
To an even greater degree than our book on medieval warfare, we depended throughout on the guidance of a vast number of specialists in areas far outside our own areas of expertise, many of whom responded quite generously to our emails. Nevertheless, we undoubtedly are guilty of numerous errors of omission and commission. It was our hope, aside from benefitting personally from intellectual exploration, to offer a starting point for scholars to engage in more and deeper cooperation across regions. I think we accomplished that goal.
Bernie did not live to see the publication of the work. He passed away a couple of weeks after we completed the volume, following a brief illness. The book is dedicated to his memory and is a fitting tribute to his amazing career and continuous desire to learn more about pretty much everything.
Warfare in the Global Middle Ages, by David S. Bachrach and Bernard S. Bachrach, is published today by Routledge. You can buy a copy through the publisher’s website, Amazon.com, Amazon.ca and Amazon.co.uk.
David Bachrach is a Professor at the University of New Hampshire, where he researches medieval military history, particularly in England and Germany.
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