Christian Ayne Crouch, author of Nobility Lost:
"The Military Enlightenment provides a refreshing angle in European cultural histories of war. Christy Pichichero unpacks the paradoxical questions that inspired the military enlightenment: how to wage war with greatest economy and efficiency but also how to wage war humanely, with compassion and civility. Pichichero’s work deftly shows how both great and lesser-known minds struggled to achieve these ideals in eighteenth-century France and how the military enlightenment continues to inform war ethics to this day."
John A. Lynn II, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and author of Battle:
Christy Pichichero’s thought-provoking work should inspire, or compel, us all to reconsider eighteenth-century military thought in a much broader context. She presents an impressive variety of issues discussed across a range of contemporary genres. Her study of enlightenment France marvelously demonstrates that the consideration of military topics both by professionals and by civilians infuses as well as reflects the intellectual tenor of an age.
David A. Bell, author of Shadows of Revolution:
Christy Pichichero has written an ambitious, wide-ranging, engaging, and informative book about what she calls the 'military Enlightenment' in eighteenth-century France. Well-researched and clearly presented, it will be read avidly by historians, scholars of eighteenth-century French literature and philosophy, and military historians.
Rafe Blaufarb, author of The Great Demarcation:
The Military Enlightenment is comprehensive, original, and significant. It has so many virtues, I hardly know where to begin. It is impressively sweeping in the source material Christy Pichichero mobilizes, daring in its chronology, and beautifully written. It will command the attention of scholars in a wide range of disciplines, including history, literature, philosophy, and psychology.
In a sweeping narrative, underpinned by broad and deep primary sources... Pichichero traces the fervent debates in French society about how best to wage war during the eighteenth century. She more than succeeds in her goal, illustrating in five well-structured chapters how important military thought was to the French Enlightenment writ large.
Pichichero is to be complimented for her industry and her subtle insightful analysis. She has produced a nuanced work of military, intellectual and cultural history.
The author invites a fine reflection on the search for humanism at war and on the excesses of military justifications based on supposed humanism in recent conflicts.
Superbly researched, energetically argued, and extremely well written account.... One ends by admiring the quality and breadth of Pichichero's research, which has triumphantly placed the conduct of war squarely within the domain of the Enlightenment, and indeed turned 'military enlightenment' from an oxymoron into a truism.
The Military Enlightenment is a valuable addition to the historiography of the Enlightenment. Pichichero builds on previous works... that argue, similarly, for locating military theory and philosophy within the Enlightenment.... In casting such a wide net, Pichichero effectively proves her thesis, and her work is highly recommended.
Military historians will benefit from Pichichero's detailed and original analysis of the development of eighteenth-century military culture. Scholars of the Enlightenment will find here vital new perspective on the real-world impact of Enlightenment thought through the medium of the army.
Provide[s] fascinating new perspectives on the cultural history of war in the early modern period.
Pichichero traces the fervent debates in French society about how best to wage war during the eighteenth century. The Military Enlightenment is a tour de force and deserves a broad readership.
Christy Pichichero's work significantly changes our understanding of the French Enlightenment's relationship with war.
Pichichero's fascinating book surveys efforts to create a more rational, humane system of military discipline, to articulate rules of war to protect wounded soldiers and noncombatants, and to regenerate French society through the promotion of the virtues of heroism and patriotism through all strata of society.
