The empire of chance : the Napoleonic Wars and the disorder of things

"Empire of Chance examines the place of war in the history of knowledge. It argues that with the Napoleonic Wars, chance came to be installed as the basic operative principle of history. Attending to a vast array of fields and disciplines -- military theory, literature, philosophy, cartography, mathematics, and pedagogy -- the book charts the momentous shift in the thinking of war that took place around 1800. It examines the efforts to rethink the state of war as a variegated epistemic regime of chance events, contingencies, conjectures, and probabilities, and it tells the story of the inventions devised to handle and manage it. Juxtaposing traditional philosophy and military theory, literature and cartography, war games and historiography, knowledge and poetics, Engberg-Pedersen reveals how the Napoleonic Wars served as a catalyst for the emergence of a worldly thought that turns its attention outward to the flux of the empirical world in order to come to grips with the pervasive disorder of things. War came to be conceived not as an exceptional state, but as a cipher of modernity"--;Introduction -- The geometry of war : siege architecture and narrative form -- State of war 1800 : topography and chance -- Modus operandi : on touch, tact, and tactics -- Exercising judgment : technologies of experience -- Paper empires : military cartography and the management of space -- The poetics of war : cartography and the realist novel -- Conclusion : the disorder of things. Napoleon's campaigns were the most complex military undertakings in history before the nineteenth century. But the defining battles of Austerlitz, Borodino, and Waterloo changed more than the nature of warfare. Concepts of chance, contingency, and probability became permanent fixtures in the West's understanding of how the world works. Empire of Chance examines anew the place of war in the history of Western thought, showing how the Napoleonic Wars inspired a new discourse on knowledge.Soldiers returning from the battlefields were forced to reconsider basic questions about what it is possible to know and how decisions are made in a fog of imperfect knowledge. Artists and intellectuals came to see war as embodying modernity itself. The theory of war espoused in Carl von Clausewitz's classic treatise responded to contemporary developments in mathematics and philosophy, and the tools for solving military problems—maps, games, and simulations—became models for how to manage chance. On the other hand, the realist novels of Balzac, Stendhal, and Tolstoy questioned whether chance and contingency could ever be described or controlled.As Anders Engberg-Pedersen makes clear, after Napoleon the state of war no longer appeared exceptional but normative. It became a prism that revealed the underlying operative logic determining the way society is ordered and unfolds. Napoleons campaigns were the most complex military undertakings in history before the nineteenth century. But the defining battles of Austerlitz, Borodino, and Waterloo changed more than the nature of warfare. Concepts of chance, contingency, and probability became permanent fixtures in the Wests understanding of how the world works. Empire of Chance examines anew the place of war in the history of Western thought, showing how the Napoleonic Wars inspired a new discourse on knowledge. Soldiers returning from the battlefields were forced to reconsider basic questions about what it is possible to know and how decisions are made in a fog of imperfect knowledge. Artists and intellectuals came to see war as embodying modernity itself. The theory of war espoused in Carl von Clausewitzs classic treatise responded to contemporary developments in mathematics and philosophy, and the tools for solving military problemsmaps, games, and simulationsbecame models for how to manage chance. On the other hand, the realist novels of Balzac, Stendhal, and Tolstoy questioned whether chance and contingency could ever be described or controlled. As Anders Engberg-Pedersen makes clear, after Napoleon the state of war no longer appeared exceptional but normative. It became a prism that revealed the underlying operative logic determining the way society is ordered and unfolds. "Empire of Chance examines the place of war in the history of knowledge. It argues that with the Napoleonic Wars, chance came to be installed as the basic operative principle of history. Attending to a vast array of fields and disciplines -- military theory, literature, philosophy, cartography, mathematics, and pedagogy -- the book charts the momentous shift in the thinking of war that took place around 1800. It examines the efforts to rethink the state of war as a variegated epistemic regime of chance events, contingencies, conjectures, and probabilities, and it tells the story of the inventions devised to handle and manage it. Juxtaposing traditional philosophy and military theory, literature and cartography, war games and historiography, knowledge and poetics, Engberg-Pedersen reveals how the Napoleonic Wars served as a catalyst for the emergence of a worldly thought that turns its attention outward to the flux of the empirical world in order to come to grips with the pervasive disorder of things. War came to be conceived not as an exceptional state, but as a cipher of modernity"-- Provided by publisher The Empire of Chance examines the place of war in the history of knowledge. It argues that with the Napoleonic Wars, chance came to be installed as the basic operative principle of history. Attending to a vast array of fields and disciplines -- military theory, literature, philosophy, cartography, mathematics, and pedagogy -- the book charts the momentous shift in the thinking of war that took place around 1800. It examines the efforts to rethink the state of war as a variegated epistemic regime of chance events, contingencies, conjectures, and probabilities, and it tells the story of the inventions devised to handle and manage it. Juxtaposing traditional philosophy and military theory, literature and cartography, war games and historiography, knowledge and poetics, Engberg-Pedersen reveals how the Napoleonic Wars served as a catalyst for the emergence of a worldly thought that turns its attention outward to the flux of the empirical world in order to come to grips with the pervasive disorder of things. War came to be conceived not as an exceptional state, but as a cipher of modernity" Contents Introduction: The Prism of War 1. The Geometry of War: Siege Architecture and Narrative Form 2. State of War 1800: Topography and Chance 3. Modus Operandi: On Touch, Tact, and Tactics 4. Exercising Judgment: Technologies of Experience 5. Paper Empires: Military Cartography and the Management of Space 6. The Poetics of War: Cartography and the Realist Novel Conclusion: The Disorder of Things Notes Acknowledgments Index

Anders Engberg-Pedersen shows how the Napoleonic Wars inspired a new discourse on knowledge in the West. Soldiers returning from battle were forced to reconsider what it is possible to know and how decisions are made in a fog of imperfect knowledge. Chance no longer appeared exceptional but normative—a prism for understanding the modern world.