Gunpowder, Masculinity, and Warfare in German Texts, 1400-1700
Title Details

272 Pages

22.8 x 15.2 cm

11 b/w, 1 line illus.

Series: Changing Perspectives on Early Modern Europe

Series Vol. Number: 21

Imprint: University of Rochester Press

Gunpowder, Masculinity, and Warfare in German Texts, 1400-1700

by Patrick Brugh

  • Description
  • Contents
  • Reviews
How gunpowder technology exploded heroes, heroics, and war stories from 1400 to 1700, and how German writers tried to glue them back together

Guns have been linked with masculinity since their earliest days on European battlefields, and surviving treatises on gunpowder from the early fifteenth century describe in detail the kinds of strong, sober, and God-fearing men who could be trusted to use this new weapon. As the destructive capacity and military tactical value of gunpowder became more evident to European peoples over time, writers--especially German ones--expressed increasing anxiety aboutthe disruptive potential that gunpowder weapons held for warrior masculinity, martial ethics, and the aesthetic traditions of war stories.

Focused on early modern German texts of all kinds, including military manuals,poems, theological treatises, novels, and broadsheets, Gunpowder, Masculinity, and Warfare in German Texts, 1400-1700 traces the cultural and literary history of gunpowder in German-speaking lands from the Hussite Wars into the literary aftermath of the Thirty Years War. Taking a long view of this textual and material history, author Patrick Brugh reveals that early conversations about firearms resonate with those today, including debates on such topics as questions of masculine ethos and gun violence, the rights to self-defense and to bear arms, and the way new technologies change how we tell stories.

PATRICK BRUGH is an affiliate assistant professor of Genderand Sexuality Studies at Loyola University Maryland and an administrator at Johns Hopkins University.
A Tale of Two Suits of Armor
Of Hussites and Haystacks, Of Questions and Cannons
Textbook War: The Genealogy of Kriegsbücher
Gunpowder Dilemmas and Loaded Peace in Fronsperger's Kriegsbuch
Depicting Gunpowder in German Military Broadsheets (1630-1632)
Gustav Adolf's Gunpowder Demise
The Aesthetics of Gunpowder in Seventeenth-Century German War Novels
Cavalier Endings in Happel's Der insulanische Mandorell (1682)
Appendix: Comparisons of Broadsheets from Battles of Breitenfeld, Rain am Lech, and Lützen
Bibliography
"[A] rich and ambitious study. offers an important example of the new perspectives and insights that may be gained from exploring the intersections of early modern military and cultural history, and from carefully framing literary sources within their historical and generic contexts." JOURNAL OF BRITISH STUDIES
"Patrick Brugh makes a significant contribution to the burgeoning field of cultural military history though a cultural history of gunpowder weaponry. . . . Brugh's book is closely argued, richly documented, and of great significance to the fields of literary studies, military history, and gender history of early modern Europe." H-NET
"Readers interested in the broader cultural context of military history, in image analysis, and in gender analysis will want to read this book. . . . [I]ndividual chapters, especially those dealing with broadsheets, might be useful for teaching students to approach visual sources." Janis M. Gibbs, Journal of Military History
"[A]n interesting and well-written book, whose novel approach makes it a valuable addition to the historiography of gunpowder weapons and warfare." Dan Spencer, De Re Militari
"Gunpower, Masculinity, and Warfare in German Texts will prove a noteworthy read for any scholar interested in the artistic, instructional, and literary depictions of gunpowder in sixteenth-and seventeenth-century Germany. And although Brugh's sensitivity to literary theory suggests that the work will speak more to students of literature than students of history, military historians can learn a great deal from Brugh about the aesthetic impact of gunpowder weaponry in early modern Germany." Maximilian Miguel Scholz, Central European History

Hardcover

9781580469685

October 2019

Buy

£105.00 / $125.00

Shipping Options

Buy Ships within 2 business days

Buy

Purchasing options are not available in this country.

Ebook (EPUB)

9781787446502

October 2019

Buy

$29.95 / £24.99

Ebook (EPDF)

9781787446083

October 2019

Buy

$29.95 / £24.99

Title Details

272 Pages

2.28 x 1.52 cm

11 b/w, 1 line illus.

Series: Changing Perspectives on Early Modern Europe

Series Vol. Number: 21

Imprint: University of Rochester Press