Siege Warfare: The Fortress in the Early Modern World 1494-1660, Vol. 1

Siege Warfare #1

by Christopher Duffy

This classic text is the first integrated survey of the phenomenon of siege warfare during its most creative period. Duffy demonstrates the implications of the fortress for questions of military organization, strategy, geography, law, architectural values, town life and symbolism and imagination. The book is well illustrated, and will be a valuable companion for enthusiasts of military and architectural history, as well as the general medievalist.

Genres: History, Military History, Military Fiction, Nonfiction, Renaissance

302 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Christopher Duffy (born 1936) is a British military historian. Duffy read history at Balliol College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1961 with the PhD. Afterwards, he taught military history at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and the college of the British General Staff. He was secretary-general of the British Commission for Military History and vice-president of the History Society of Ireland. From 1996 to 2001, he was research professor at the De Montfort University, Leicester. Today he lives and works as a freelance author.

Duffy's special interest is the military history of the European modern age, in particular the history of the German, Prussian and Austrian armed forces. He is most famous for his writings about the Seven Years' War and especially Frederick the Great, which he called self-ironically "a product of the centuries-old British obsession with that most un-British of creatures". Duffy is fluent in six languages and has published some twenty books about military history topics, whereof several were translated into German.

Reviews

[Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Utterly fascinating survey of fortress warfare in the 16th to mid-17th centuries, covering both how fortress building and siege warfare changed over time during this transitional period in history.

This is a dense book and assumes a pretty thorough knowledge of warfare throughout that period. While it does not directly chronicle the many wars of the period, it does discuss the sieges in these wars (sometimes at length), which, if you are not familiar with, say, the Italian wars of the late 15th and early 16th centuries (as I was not), it can make for some sloggy reading.

Though the book does spend a lot of its time in western Europe, it does discuss fortress building and seigecraft in other parts of the world during this time too, which was fascinating to me.

I really enjoyed my time with this, despite its density and assumption of knowledge.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

At the same time he clearly explains the developments in siege warfare over the period in question, Prof. Duffy crams this book full of really great anecdotes that make it a pleasure to read.

[Brandon Rock · Rating 3 out of 5]

Duffy gives an excellently detailed analysis of siege warfare across many nations and time periods. He provides illustrations and maps which help to provide the reader with an idea of how sieges unfolded.

Unfortunately, for myself at least, Duffy's writing style jumps from one conflict to another without giving context to the greater struggle. I found this polarising as a reader and quite jarring to fluently read. I must admit though, if you are looking for a detailed analysis without getting bogged down in national histories, then this book maybe for you.

[Edoardo Albert · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are some books that define their subject. This is one of them. Christopher Duffy’s magisterial study of the first century and a half of siege warfare in the Gunpowder Age is superb not merely for its breadth and depth of scholarship, for its lucid style that makes this abstruse area of warfare accessible to everyone but also for the dry wit that sparkles through the lines. It’s seldom that such a technical book can also be a joy to read but this is one of those rare exceptions.

[Mikhail Beresnev · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Looking forward to getting the second book, covering the fortifications of the 18th century.