Best regards, Andrew Stewart
Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: April 29, 2021 at 8:37:30 AM EDT > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-War]: Tieleman on Dincecco and Onorato, 'From > Warfare to Wealth: The Military Origins of Urban Prosperity in Europe' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > Mark Dincecco, Massimiliano Gaetano Onorato. From Warfare to Wealth: > The Military Origins of Urban Prosperity in Europe. Cambridge > Cambridge University Press, 2017. 210 pp. $29.99 (paper), ISBN > 978-1-316-61259-0. > > Reviewed by Matthijs Tieleman (UCLA) > Published on H-War (April, 2021) > Commissioned by Margaret Sankey > > In the last seventy years, the costs--as opposed to the benefits and > necessity--of war have become an increasingly central part of Western > political discourse. Already in 1961 and in his farewell address, US > president Dwight D. Eisenhower warned of the danger that the > "military-industrial complex" posed to American democracy.[1] In > subsequent decades, people of various political stripes have > criticized the cost of the wars that the United States and its allies > have fought across the globe. Especially after Vietnam, Iraq, and > Afghanistan few still believe that war is worth the cost in treasure > and human lives. And, in many ways, military history has followed > this critical analysis of war. The current field focuses considerably > less on the heroics, strategies, and tactics in battle and more on > the problematic consequences of war from a bottom-up perspective. > > Mark Dincecco's and Massimiliano G. Onorato's _From Warfare to > Wealth: The Military Origins of Urban Prosperity in Europe _offers a > fascinating argument that fits into this new genre of military > history but without focusing exclusively on war's costs to society. > The book's goal is an ambitious one. The authors seek to prove a > relationship between what they call "warfare" and "[urban] wealth" in > Europe during the last thousand years or so. The book's core argument > is that the political fragmentation of the Carolingian Empire in the > ninth and tenth centuries primed the European continent for war > between states and principalities, which in turn gradually drove > rural populations to cities for safety. Over time, this so-called > safe-harbor effect led to growing city populations and local economic > developments "through several channels: the establishment of local > privileges, including self-governance and property rights protections > from predatory outside rulers; technological innovation and human > capital accumulation; and economic agglomeration effects" (p. 2). > Dincecco and Onorato call this process the "warfare-to-wealth > effect." The authors recognize that this effect ended in the > nineteenth century when centralized states became capable of > providing these "city benefits" to all inhabitants of their > respective nation-states. > > The authors succeed handily in proving this central thesis and > deserve much praise for making the bold assertion that war was > crucial to creating wealth in European cities. Dincecco and Onorato > demonstrate they have done rigorous research and have generated a > truly impressive array of data. Especially chapters 4 and 5, the most > data-driven chapters of the book that discuss the safe-harbor and > warfare-to-wealth effects, expertly show how data can be useful to > scholars studying historical trends. The relationship between > exposure to war in the early modern period to higher GDP in later > centuries is intriguing and sheds an important new light on the > military dynamics of urbanization and war-related migration in > Europe. Even better, both Dincecco and Onorato write well and > clearly, a skill often underappreciated in academic works. A more > humanistic scholar like me did not feel lost or bored, even in the > chapters that employed lots of data. In this way, _From Warfare to > Wealth _is an easily accessible treasure trove of information. > > While I was very impressed with the book overall, the scope of > analysis and terminology the authors used did raise some issues. > Concerning the latter, the authors repeatedly employed the term > "warfare" (including in the title) where they usually mean "war." > Using the term "warfare" in the context of their argument suggests > that the activity itself or the means of fighting a war--strategies, > tactics, and weapons--created urban prosperity. This would have been > a very interesting thesis as well, but that is not what the authors > are actually arguing, or at least not for the most part. Admittedly, > this is a bit nitpicky and the terms are often confused in colloquial > use. But I still think the terminology should have been better > fleshed out, especially when it concerns the core of the argument. > > As for the scope of analysis, the comparisons that Dincecco and > Onorato made with China and sub-Saharan Africa were excellent. They > made the implications of the analysis more global than the book seems > at first glance. According to the authors, they chose these two > regions because their physical size resembled Europe's, but their > disparate political and economic systems did not. The authors suggest > they are planning to expand upon these comparisons and I sincerely > hope they do. > > But these comparisons do raise the question of why the authors did > not first consider comparing European states to their imperial > colonies. It would have been fascinating to see if there was a > "safe-harbor" and "warfare-to-wealth effect" in European colonies > too, especially because their wars and migration patterns were deeply > connected to the ones in Europe. For instance, how does the authors' > thesis work out in Boston, which Mark Peterson in his recent book > called a "city-state" along the lines of Venice?[2] A comparison with > a vastly different place such as China can be helpful. But it may not > be as strong of a "control group" as a place with at least partially > similar people and connected historical developments but different > environmental and societal dynamics. > > These are, of course, minor criticisms and they do not detract from > this book's excellence. _From Warfare to Wealth _is a very impressive > work that has a bold and compelling argument. It relies on a wealth > of rigorous research and is expertly written. Anybody who is even > remotely interested in the military and economic history of Europe > should immediately put it on their reading list. > > Notes > > [1]. Dwight D. Eisenhower, "Military-Industrial Complex Speech, > 1961," Yale Avalon Project, accessed March 1, 2021, > https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/eisenhower001.asp. > > [2]. Mark Peterson, _The City-State of Boston: The Rise and Fall of > an Atlantic Power, 1630-1835_ (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University > Press 2019). > > Citation: Matthijs Tieleman. Review of Dincecco, Mark; Onorato, > Massimiliano Gaetano, _From Warfare to Wealth: The Military Origins > of Urban Prosperity in Europe_. H-War, H-Net Reviews. April, 2021. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=56062 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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