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War and Society

Readings Schedule

Click on a date to see assigned readings.

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January 5: The Rise of the Fiscal-Military State in Europe

Readings:
• Lecture

January 7: International Context and the State, 1600-1871

Maps:
• Europe in 1648
• Europe in 1714
• Europe in 1815, with Napoleon's Empire in 1812
• Europe from 1871 to 1914
• The Holy Roman Empire in 1789
• The Partitions of Poland, 1772-95

Readings:
• Lecture
• Anderson, Introduction, pp. 13-32.

Recommended:
• Scott, Hamish. 2009. "The Fiscal-Military State and International Rivalry during the Long Eighteenth Century." In Storrs, Christopher, Ed. The Fiscal-Military State in Eighteenth Century Europe. Farnham: Ashgate, pp. 23-54.

January 9 & 12: Warfare on Land – The Evolution of Army Style

Figures:
• The Army of France, 1494-1945
• The Army of Prussia / Germany, 1618-1945
• Round Towers vs. Bastions
• Vauban's Defensive Works
• Geneva and its Fortifications in 1841
• Vauban's Siege Technique
• The Siege of Maastricht, 1632
• The Siege of Lille, 1708
• The Siege of Jülich, 1621–22 by Pieter Snayers

Readings:
• Lecture
• Anderson, Parts 1 and 2, pp. 33-156.
• Best, Part 1, pp. 15-62.

Recommended:
• Asch, Ronald G. 1999. "Warfare in the Age of the Thirty Years War, 1598-1648." In Jeremy Black, Ed. European Warfare, 1453-1815. London: Macmillan.
• Wilson, Peter H. 1999. "Warfare in the Old Regime, 1648-1789." In Jeremy Black, Ed. European Warfare, 1453-1815. London: Macmillan.
• Black, Jeremy. 1999. "Revolutionary and Napoleonic Warfare." In Jeremy Black, Ed. European Warfare, 1453-1815. London: Macmillan.
• Lynn, John A. 1996. "The Evolution of Army Style in the Modern West, 800-2000." International History Review, 18(3): 505–45.

January 14 & 16: Warfare at Sea – The Growth of Navies

Figures:
• Dutch Ships Ramming Spanish Galleys off the Flemish Coast in October 1602 by Hendrick Cornelisz Vroom, 1617
• Cut-out diagram of H.M.S. Temeraire
• Redoutable at the Battle of Trafalgar, 1805 by Louis-Philippe Crépin, 1807
• Fleet Tactics in the Age of Sail
• The Battle of the Capes, 1781 by V. Zveg, 1962

Readings:
• Lecture
• Harding, Richard. 1999. "Naval Warfare, 1453-1815." In Jeremy Black, Ed. European Warfare, 1453-1815. London: Macmillan.

Recommended:
• Harding, Richard. 1999. Seapower and Naval Warfare, 1650-1830. London: Routledge. Chapters 3 and 11, pp. 37-58, 281-88.

January 19: NO CLASS (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day)

• No readings.

January 21: How States Paid for War

Readings:
• Lecture

January 23: Taxation – The Struggle over Assessments

Readings:
• Lecture

Recommended:
• Coşgel, Metin M., and Thomas J. Miceli. 2009. "Tax Collection in History." Public Finance Review, 37(4): 399-420.
• Krüger, Kersten. 1987. "Public Finance and Modernisation: The Change from Domain State to Tax State in Hesse in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries — A Case Study." In Peter-Christian Witt, ed. Wealth and Taxation in Central Europe: The History and Sociology of Public Finance. Leamington Spa: Berg.

January 26 & 28: Revenue Collection – From Tax Farming to State Bureaucracy

Readings:
• Lecture

Recommended:
• Swart, Koenraad W. 2002. "The Sale of Public Offices." In Arnold J. Heidenheimer and Michael Johnston, Eds. Political Corruption: Concepts & Contexts, Third Edition. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, pp. 95-106.

January 30 & February 2 & 4 & 6: Political Institutions – The Fundamental Problems of Resource Extraction

Readings:
• Lecture
• Levi, Margaret. 1988. Of Rule and Revenue. Berkeley: University of California Press, Chapters 2 and 3.

Recommended:
• Cox, Gary W. 2011. "War, Moral Hazard, and Ministerial Responsibility: England after the Glorious Revolution," Journal of Economic History, 71(1): 133–61.
• Rosenthal, Jean-Laurent. 1998. "The Political Economy of Absolutism Reconsidered." In Robert H. Bates, et al., Eds. Analytic Narratives. Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 64-108.

February 9: War on Credit – Borrowing and Debt Servicing

Readings:
• Lecture

February 11: Effects of War – Fiscal and Administrative Efficiency

Readings:
• Anderson, Part 3, pp. 157-206.
• Hoffman, Philip T., and Kathryn Norberg. 1994. Fiscal Crises, Liberty, and Representative Government, 1450-1789. Stanford: Stanford University Press, Conclusion.

Recommended:
• Kugler, Tadeusz, et al. 2012. "Demographic and Economic Consequences of Conflict." International Studies Quarterly, doi://10.1111/isqu.12002.
• Organski, A.F.K., and Jacek Kugler. 1977. "The Costs of Major Wars: The Phoenix Factor." American Political Science Review, 71(4): 1347–66.
• Dincecco, Mark. 2009. "Fiscal Centralization, Limited Government, and Public Revenues in Europe, 1650-1913." Journal of Economic History, 69(1): 48--103.

February 13: MIDTERM EXAMINATION

• In class, closed book, closed notes.

February 16: NO CLASS (President's Day)

• In class, closed book, closed notes.

February 18 & 20 & 23 & 25: The Dutch Republic, 1581-1806

Maps:
• House of Habsburg at Abdication of Emperor Charles V, 1555
• Phases of the Dutch Revolt, 1576-98
• The Netherlands, 1568

Figures:
• Common Means Tax in Holland, 1575-1648
• Taxes and Debt in Holland, 1575-1794
• Interest Rates in Holland, 1575-1748
• Finances of Holland, 1575-1794

Required:
• Lecture

Recommended:
• Boogman, J.C. 1979. "The Union of Utrecht: Its Genesis and Consequences." BMGN - Low Countries Historical Review, 94(3): 377–407.
• Fritschy, Wantje. 2003. "A 'Financial Revolution' Reconsidered: Public Finance in Holland during the Dutch Revolt, 1568–1648." Economic History Review, 56(1): 57–89.

February 27 & March 2 & 4 & 6: France, 843-1815

Maps:
• Royal Domain and Fiefs in France, 999
• France during the Second English Invasion, 1415-53
• Fragmented France, 1477
• France in the 18th Century, 1715-89
• The Généralité of France, 1789

Figures:
• French Tax Income, Military Spending, and Defaults, 1600-1789
• Military Spending as Deviation from Peace Trend in France, 1600-1789
• Tax Burden on Average Worker, 1600-1789

Readings:
• Lecture

Recommended:
• Lynn, John A. "The Pattern of Army Growth, 1445-1945." In John A. Lynn, Ed. Tools of War: Instruments, Ideas, and Institutions of Warfare, 1445-1871. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
• Félix, Joël and Frank Tallett. "The French Experience, 1661-1815." In Storrs, Christopher, Ed. The Fiscal-Military State in Eighteenth Century Europe. Farnham: Ashgate, pp. 147-166.

March 9 & 11: Great Britain, 1620-1815

Figures:
• British Debt, 1618-1740
• British Government Interest Rates, 1693-1739
• British Revenue, Military Spending, and Public Debt, 1692-1939
• British and French Expenditure, 1688-1815

Readings:
• Braddick, Michael J. 1996. The Nerves of the State: Taxation and Financing of the English State, 1558-1714. Manchester: Manchester University Press, Chapters 1 and 9.
• O'Brien, Patrick Karl. "The Triumph and Denouement of the British Fiscal State: Taxation for the Wars against Revolutionary and Napoleonic France, 1793-1815." In Storrs, Christopher, Ed. The Fiscal-Military State in Eighteenth Century Europe. Farnham: Ashgate, pp. 167-200.

Recommended:
• O'Brien, Patrick Karl. 1988. The Political Economy of British Taxation, 1660-1815." Economic History Review, 41(1): 1-32.
• North, Douglas C., and Barry R. Weingast. 1989. "Constitutions and Commitment: The Evolution of Institutions Governing Public Choice in Seventeenth-Century England." Journal of Economic History, 49(4): 803-32.

March 13: Review & Comparisons with the United States, 1775 – 2001

Maps:
• Colonial Territories in America, 1775

Figures:
• US Revenue, Military Spending, and Debt, 1791-2000
• US Revenue, Military Spending, and Debt per Capita, 1791-2000
• US Military Spending and Debt Service as Percent of Total Expenditure, 1791-2000
• US Federal Government Revenue Sources, 1791-2000
• US Personal Income Tax and Debt Share per Capita, 1913-2000
• US Top and Bottom Marginal Income Tax Rates, 1913-2012
• US Effective Income Tax Rate for Average Income, 1913-2012

March 18: FINAL EXAMINATION (8:00a-11:00a)

• In-class, closed book, closed notes.