The Seven Years' War

In The Seven Years' War: Global Views, Mark H. Danley, Patrick J. Speelman, and sixteen other contributors reach beyond traditional approaches to the conflict. Chapters cover previously-understudied aspects of the war in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Western Hemisphere.

Review:

This collection of 18 essays, an introduction, and a conclusion by an international set of historians aims to broaden interpretations of the Seven Years' War as a global phenomenon. Transcending the traditional focuses on the Anglo-French struggle over North America and Prussia's conflicts in central Europe, topics include campaigns in the West Indies, Ottoman neutrality and modernization, Native American diplomatic practices, Swedish war aims, economic competition in Senegal, and strategic dilemmas of native rulers in India, to list a few. According to the editors, the chapters in this book bring together narrative and analytic approaches; join operational military history with broader social, cultural, and political history; and expose aspects of the conflict that military historians have often overlooked or downplayed. What emerges is a kaleidoscope of interlocking conflicts involving a vast range of participants from Cossacks to West African merchants pursuing their own opportunities and interests with varying degrees of success. These myriad struggles and ambitions significantly shaped the course of the wars among the major European powers. Specialists in military history and 18th-century studies should ponder this complexity historically and historiographically. As a guide, the introduction is superb. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. -- R. P. Gildrie, emeritus, Austin Peay State University in the May 2013 issue of CHOICE