Siege Warfare (1): The Fortress In The Early Modern World 1494-1660

This book sets the fortress at the center of the history of the period from 1494-1660, the time when gunpowder changed the shape of warfare. Examines fortress construction and describes the great sieges, showing how town planning & urban life were formed by them. 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. "Just one year into Donald Trump's term as president, Michael Wolff told the electrifying story of a White House consumed by controversy, chaos, and intense rivalries. Fire and fury ... defined the first phase of the Trump administration : now, in Siege, Wolff has written an equally essential and explosive book about a presidency that is under fire from almost every side. At the outset of Trump's second year as president, his situation is profoundly different. No longer tempered by experienced advisers, he is more impulsive and volatile than ever. But the wheels of justice are inexorably turning : Robert Mueller's 'witch hunt' haunts Trump every day, and other federal prosecutors are taking a deep dive into his personal affairs ... Week by week, as Trump becomes increasingly erratic, the question that lies at the heart of his tenure becomes ever more urgent : Will this most abnormal of presidencies at last reach the breaking point and implode? ...Siege provides an alarming and indelible portrait of a president like no other. Surrounded by enemies and blind to his peril, Trump is a raging, self-destructive inferno - and the most divisive leader in American history." -- From the book jacket In Siege Warfare, Christopher Duffy sets the fortress at the center of history between 1494-1660, the time when gunpowder changed the shape of warfare. He explains and clarifies the elaborate calculations which lie behind fortress construction, showing how the period was shaped, in both its town planning and urban life, by the art of fortress building.The narrative begins in Renaissance Italy, considers the engineering of the Dutch and Spanish during the Eighty Years War, and covers the state-of-the-art in Britain, Scandinavia, Muscovy and Turkey. Duffy demonstrates the implications of the fortress for military organization, strategy, geography, law, architectural values, town life and symbolism, making it the first integrated survey of the phenomenon of siege warfare during its most creative period. [v. 1.] The fortress in the early modern world, 1494-1660 v. 2. The fortress in the age of Vauban and Frederick the Great, 1680-1789. Bound in publisher's original red cloth with the spine stamped in gilt.