History of the Wars

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Joan M. Schwartz and James R. Ryan

The advent of photography opened up new worlds to 19th century viewers, who were able to visualize themselves and the world beyond in unprecedented detail. But the emphasis on the photography's objectivity masked the subjectivity inherent in deciding what to record, from what angle and when. This text examines this inherent subjectivity. Drawing on photographs that come from personal albums, corporate archives, commercial photographers, government reports and which were produced as art, as record, as data, the work shows how the photography shaped and was shaped by geographical concerns.

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Alina Payne

"In the late 19th century, a centuries-old preference for highly ornamented architecture gave way to a budding Modernism of clean lines and unadorned surfaces. At the same moment, everyday objects--cups, saucers, chairs, and tables--began to receive critical attention.Alina Payne addresses this shift, arguing for a new understanding of the genealogy of architectural modernism: rather than the well-known story in which an absorption of technology and mass production created a radical aesthetic that broke decisively with the past, Payne argues for a more gradual shift, as the eloquence of architectural ornamentation was taken on by objects of daily use. As she demonstrates, the work of Adolf Loos and Le Corbusier should be seen as the culmination of a conversation about ornament dating as far back as the Renaissance. Payne looks beyond the usual suspects of philosophy and science to establish theoretical catalysts for the shift from ornament to object in the varied fields of anthropology and ethnology; art history and the museum; and archaeology and psychology"--

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Steven T. Ross

In From Flintlock to Rifle, Professor Ross traces the development of infantry tactics from the mid-eighteenth century, when infantry fought in rigid linear formations, until the second half of the nineteenth century, by which time infantrymen with rifled weapons were learning to advance in open order and use aimed fire. The author demonstrates that this transition in tactics involved social and technological change as well as military innovation. Old Regime armies, recruited from a narrow social base and armed with slow-firing, short-range, inaccurate weapons, relied upon harsh discipline and formalized evolutions to attain tactical proficiency. When the French Royal Army collapsed it was replaced with a mass citizen army. This contained elements of the old tactical system but placed a new emphasis on mobility, flexibility, and individual initiative. Napoleon's rivals either imitated aspects of the French system or sought to copy the spirit of the new tactics, engineering social reforms from above and creating their own citizen armies. After 1815, generals and politicians continued to develop tactical doctrines that embodied the lessons of the Napoleonic wars. Industrialization had a swift impact on weapons technology and firearms improved in range, accuracy, and rate of fire. As a result, military men had to modify their drill and battle tactics to cope with increased firepower. A process initiated by the French Revolution was thus accelerated by the Industrial Revolution.

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Gernot Gruber

In the first comprehensive history of the changing reception of Mozart and his music over the last two hundred years, Gernot Gruber skillfully charts Mozart's evolution from forgotten composer to "a youth beloved of the gods." He considers Mozart's waning reputation during the decade preceding his death in 1791, and thoroughly examines how Mozart was deified by the Romantics, sanitized by the Victorians, and commercialized in the 1980s and early 1990s. This insightful volume probes beyond the sphere of music into literature, philosophy, the fine arts, and theology to provide a refreshing discussion of the shifting ideas, images, interpretations, and questions surrounding Mozart over the last two centuries. With profound knowledge of the relevant literature, Gruber shows how figures such as Goethe, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Felix Mendelssohn, Soren Kierkegaard, George Bernard Shaw, Richard Wagner, Richard Strauss, Arnold Schoenberg, Hermann Hesse, Marc Chagall, Ingmar Bergman, and Peter Shaffer attempted to define the elusive nature of the composer's genius in their quest to discover the "true" Mozart. The volume includes provocative perspectives on the impact of Milos Forman's highly successful film Amadeus and on the commercial packaging of Mozart for mass consumption. . Gruber's compelling account of the evolving perceptions of Mozart's music reveals as much about the changes in European ideology and culture as it does about the composer of his music.