Vauban Under Siege
Engineering Efficiency and Martial Vigor in the War of the Spanish Succession
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9800350 |
|---|---|
| Authors | John B Hattendorf (Naval War College, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2008 |
| Volume | 123 |
| Issue | 503 |
| Pages | 1041-1043 |
| Publication date | 2008-08-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The English Historical Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0013-8266 • E-ISSN: 1477-4534 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/ehr/cen235 |
| OpenAlex | W2023710121 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
Siege warfare played a pivotal role in the conduct of war, yet it has often been dismissed as wasteful and time-consuming effort by those commanders and historians more interested in the quest for the decisive battles of offensive manoeuvre warfare. In this revised version of his 2002 doctoral thesis at the Ohio State University, Dr Jamel Ostwald carefully examines the full range of issues involving siege warfare in the early modern period, using widespread archival and printed source materials in French, Dutch, and English. The result of his comprehensive, highly detailed, and technical research has created the most important scholarly work yet to appear on the subject of siege warfare during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14) and a book that provides a solid new interpretation that makes a major contribution to understanding this important aspect of European warfare in the early modern period. Ostwald opens his study by explaining the ideal siege as exemplified by Sébastien le Prestre de Vauban's siege of Ath during the Nine Years’ War in 1697. Through this specific example, Ostwald explains Vauban's principles and his concepts of engineering efficiency along with his tactical innovations of trench parallels, cavaliers de tranchée, and ricochet fire. In this he shows that Vauban's objective was to conduct siege operations ‘by the shortest, most reasonable and least bloody route possible’ (p. 50) and his criteria for measuring efficiency were keeping low a siege's length, cost, and number of casualties
Ancient history · Economics · Economy · Operations management · Parallels · Political science · Siege · Classics · Engineering · Historical Studies on Spain · History · Law
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,15 |
| Citation span | 2013 - 2023 (11) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |