Books by Brian Sandberg
In this latest addition to the acclaimed War & Conflict Through the Ages series, Brian Sandberg o... more In this latest addition to the acclaimed War & Conflict Through the Ages series, Brian Sandberg offers a truly global examination of the intersections between war, culture, and society in the early modern period. Sandberg traces the innovative military technologies and practices that emerged around 1500, then explores the different forms of warfare—including dynastic war, religious warfare, raiding warfare, and peasant revolt— that shaped conflicts during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He explains how significant social, economic, and political developments transformed warfare on land and at sea at a time of global imperialism and growing mercantilism, forcing states and military systems to respond to rapidly changing situations.
Engaging and insightful, War and Conflict in the Early Modern World will interest scholars and students of world history, the early modern period, and the broader relationship between war and society.
Taking advantage of the vast archives of the Medici Grand Dukes, the authors of this volume prese... more Taking advantage of the vast archives of the Medici Grand Dukes, the authors of this volume present original research and fresh perspectives on the Medici family and the Tuscan court, revealing the mechanisms of Medicean diplomacy, patronage, and cultural brokerage.
The Grand Ducal Medici and their Archive offers a unique window into early modern Florentine society through an exploration of the archives of the Medici ruling family. Teeming with circa three million letters, the archival collection of the Medici grand dukes housed at the Archivio di Stato in Florence chronicles the culture and history of Europe and beyond, across a span of over two hundred years. The letters of this collection, known as the Mediceo del Principato, embrace a great variety of themes including diplomacy, art, medicine, food, science, and warfare. Since its contents originate from a court archive that served both the state and a ruling family, this collection comprises administrative, political, and financial correspondence, as well as more private and intimate accounts of the Medici themselves and their activity at court. At the same time, it would be a great misconception to assume that this enormous archival corpus pertains just to Florence or just to the Medici, given that the vast majority of these missives were written by ambassadors, agents, and informants stationed throughout Europe. This volume, The Grand Ducal Medici and their Archive, aims to unlock not only the complex structure of the Mediceo del Principato but also the richness of its content. The sixteen essays address a variety of topics – book history, Ottoman relations, collections of New World artifacts, medical history, gender studies, and material culture – all with direct reference to the Medici grand duchy. The original research that supports these studies was drawn in part from the Medici Archive Project's online platform (BIA) for querying over 350,000 digitized and/or transcribed letters. Making use of these and other original sources, the essays in The Grand Ducal Medici and their Archive shed new light on the mechanisms and strategies that enabled Florence to emerge from decades of internecine conflict and diplomatic chaos in order to enjoy cultural and political prominence.
This cultural history of civil warfare in early seventeenth-century France examines how warrior n... more This cultural history of civil warfare in early seventeenth-century France examines how warrior nobles' practices of violence shaped provincial society and the royal state.
Warrior Pursuits analyzes in detail how provincial nobles engaged in revolt and civil warfare in southern France between 1598 and 1635. The southern French provinces of Guyenne and Languedoc suffered almost continual religious strife and civil conflict in this period, providing an excellent case for investigating the dynamics of early modern civil violence. Brian Sandberg's extensive archival research on noble families in these provinces reveals that violence continued to be a way of life for many French nobles, challenging previous scholarship that depicts a progressive "civilizing" of noble culture. He argues that southern French nobles engaged in warrior pursuits -- social and cultural practices of violence designed to raise personal military forces and to wage civil warfare in order to advance various political and religious goals. Close relationships between the profession of arms, the bonds of nobility, and the culture of revolt allowed nobles to regard their violent performances as "heroic gestures" and "beautiful warrior acts." Warrior nobles represented the key organizers of civil warfare in the early seventeenth century, orchestrating all aspects of the conduct of civil warfare -- from recruitment to combat -- according to their own understandings of their warrior pursuits.
Building on the work of Arlette Jouanna and other historians of the nobility, Sandberg provides new perspectives on noble culture, state development, and civil warfare in early modern France. French historians and scholars of the Reformation and the European Wars of Religion will find Warrior Pursuits engaging and insightful.
Articles by Brian Sandberg
Mediterranean Studies, 2021
Full citation: Sandberg, Brian. “‘Moors Must Not Be Taken for Black’: Race, Conflict, and Cultura... more Full citation: Sandberg, Brian. “‘Moors Must Not Be Taken for Black’: Race, Conflict, and Cultural Translation in the Early Modern French Mediterranean.” Mediterranean Studies 29, no. 2 (2021): 182–212. https://doi.org/10.5325/mediterraneanstu.29.2.0182
Sixteenth Century Journal, 2019
We allegedly live in an age of religious warfare. Ever since the September 11 Attacks in 2001, jo... more We allegedly live in an age of religious warfare. Ever since the September 11 Attacks in 2001, journalists, analysts, observers, and scholars have frequently used the concept of “religious wars” to explain terrorist attacks and armed conflicts around the world. The spectacular violence and massive destruction of the attacks confirmed a return to religion in international politics and reinforced the concept of a grand “clash of civilizations” as defining war. The growing sectarian violence in the Iraq War prompted extended comparisons between the European Wars of Religion and contemporary religious violence. The comparisons between “old” and “new” wars of religion certainly present conceptual and theoretical challenges for historians working on religious violence in the early modern period.
Revista Universitaria de Historia Militar 7: 15, 2018
Spanish translation of “‘Generous Amazons Came to the Breach’: Besieged Women in the French Wars ... more Spanish translation of “‘Generous Amazons Came to the Breach’: Besieged Women in the French Wars of Religion,” Gender and History 16 (November 2004): 654-688. Translated by Antonio Escobar Tortosa. pp. 213-245.
Hungarian Historical Review , 2015
in special issue on “Cultures of War: Experiences, Images, and Memories,” Hungarian Historical Re... more in special issue on “Cultures of War: Experiences, Images, and Memories,” Hungarian Historical Review 4, 2 (2015): 346-383
Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal 5 , 2010
At the time of the quincentennial commemoration of the Columbian voyages in 1992, historical scho... more At the time of the quincentennial commemoration of the Columbian voyages in 1992, historical scholarship on the Atlantic world revolved around the theme of "encounters." More recent research emphasizes the centrality of violence in the Columbian exchange. This article introduces the three following essays presented in this issue and analyzes the historical literature dealing with ethnic and religious violence in the early modern Atlantic world. Focusing particularly on the dynamics of captivity and atrocity, the author suggests that the patterns of violence developed in the early modern Atlantic world may have served as a model for the globalization of violence.
Renaissance and Reformation/Renaissance …, Jan 1, 2005
Malgré que l'édit de Nantes de 1598 soit couramment considéré comme un édit de tolérance ayant mi... more Malgré que l'édit de Nantes de 1598 soit couramment considéré comme un édit de tolérance ayant mis un terme aux guerres de religions en France, de puissants discours sur Dieu ont continué de susciter des conflits entre calvinistes et catholiques. Ces interprétations ont inspiré les laïques français, et en particulier les guerriers nobles du sud de la France, à s'engager dans des violences religieuses. Cet article montre comment la tâche de «rétablir le véritable culte de Dieu» est devenu l'objectif vital de ces catholiques laïques dans les derniers moments des guerres de religions françaises. La force croissante du mouvement de Contre-réforme dans les milieux nobles catholiques du sud de la France, a finalement provoqué des campagnes violentes dans le but de restaurer le catholicisme par la force; ce qui a rendu toute forme de réelle coexistence religieuse impossible en ce début du XVIIe siècle.
in (Re)constructing Cultures of Violence and Peace, ed. Richard Jackson, 2004
Gender & History, Jan 1, 2004
Gender studies of violence have forced scholars to rethink the association of femininity with ‘vu... more Gender studies of violence have forced scholars to rethink the association of femininity with ‘vulnerability’ and the objectivisation of women as mute victims of organised violence and oppression, incapable of agency. Recent debates about the role women and homosexuals should play in military systems in the United States and other countries have sparked a renewed interest in exploring historical contexts of the relationships between gender and organised violence. If we consider violence as a performative act, whole new dimensions of gendered aspects of the history of violence and warfare emerge. In this article, I intend to draw on my research on gender, honour, and violence during the French Wars of Religion to explore the roles played by Protestant and Catholic women in southern France during siege operations. These besieged women acted to support their coreligionists by participating in the conflicts as healers, suppliers and even combatants. Besieged women were considered ‘vulnerable’ in sieges, yet their involvement in siege operations challenged contemporary gender stereotypes, threatened social norms and opened new potential cultural possibilities for these women. I hope to show how the discourses on violence, bodies, revolt and religion shaped the tough choices that confronted these women as they participated actively in civil violence. The besieged women in southern France, I believe, are key to understanding the dynamics of gender and warfare and the ways in which women have actively participated in violence – especially in cases of civil violence where the status of the body politic was thrown into question.
Proceedings of the Western Society for French History 29, 2001
Histoire, économie et société, Jan 1, 1998
Abstract While the monarchy tried to define revolt and enforce its conception of civil conflict i... more Abstract While the monarchy tried to define revolt and enforce its conception of civil conflict in early seventeenth-century France, the local nobles of southwestern France asserted their own definitions and usages of revolt. These nobles used four principal strategies in their ...
Chapters in Collective Volumes by Brian Sandberg
A Global History of Early Modern Violence, 2020
Raiding war has often been characterized as ‘primitive war’, but raiding in the early modern worl... more Raiding war has often been characterized as ‘primitive war’, but raiding in the early modern world was highly organized and dynamic. This chapter examines evidence of raiding warfare in southern France and the Mediterranean during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. French experiences of raiding violence reveal three dimensions of early modern raiding warfare: borderlands raiding, economic devastation, and maritime raiding. Pirates and privateers launched repeated raids along the French coastlines, while soldiers, militia bands, and bandits engaged in significant raiding activities in the countryside and woodlands.
Citation: “Ravages and Depredations: Raiding War and Globalization in the Early Modern World,” in A Global History of Early Modern Violence, ed. Erica Charters, Marie Houllemare, and Peter H. Wilson (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2020), 88-102.
in Cultural History of Peace: The Renaissance, ed. Isabella Lazzarini , 2019
Essay on gender and peacemaking in the Renaissance. Full citation: “Peace, War, and Gender,” in C... more Essay on gender and peacemaking in the Renaissance. Full citation: “Peace, War, and Gender,” in Cultural History of Peace: The Renaissance, ed. Isabella Lazzarini (London: Bloomsbury, 2019), 49-65.
La domination comme expérience européenne et américaine (XVIe – XVIIe siècles), ed. David Chaunu and Sévérin Duc, 2019
The World of the Siege: Representations of Early Modern Positional Warfare, ed. Anke Fischer-Kattner and Jamel Ostwald , 2019
The World of the Siege examines relations between the conduct and representations of early modern... more The World of the Siege examines relations between the conduct and representations of early modern sieges. The volume offers case studies from various regions in Europe (England, France, the Low Countries, Germany, the Balkans) and throughout the world (the Chinese, Ottoman and Mughal Empires), from the 15th century into the 18th. The international contributors analyse how siege narratives were created and disseminated, and how early modern actors as well as later historians made sense of these violent events in both textual and visual artefacts. The volume's chronological and geographical breadth provides insight into similarities and differences of siege warfare and military culture across several cultures, countries and centuries, as well as its impact on both combatants and observers.
in Femmes à la cour de France. Charges et fonctions (XVe - XIXe siècle), ed. Kathleen Wilson-Chevalier and Caroline Zum Kolk, 2018
in Femmes à la cour de France. Charges et fonctions (XVe - XIXe siècle), ed. Kathleen Wilson-Chev... more in Femmes à la cour de France. Charges et fonctions (XVe - XIXe siècle), ed. Kathleen Wilson-Chevalier and Caroline Zum Kolk (Villeneuve d’Ascq: Septentrion, 2018, in press).
À l'époque moderne, la cour de France offre un terrain particulièrement favorable au sexe féminin. Dès la fin du Moyen Âge, elle intègre un nombre croissant de femmes dont les offices se diversifient et gagnent en prestige. Les reines et princesses qui ont vécu au cœur de cette grande « cour des Dames » apparaissent au fil des pages de ce recueil, mais ce sont les dames et demoiselles, femmes de chambre et autres officières de leurs suites, des charges les plus élevées au plus modestes, qui sont au cœur de la réflexion.
En puisant dans un large éventail de sources, les enquêtes explorent leurs parcours ainsi que les stratégies et contraintes qui les ont marqués. Elles croisent la réflexion sur le fonctionnement sociopolitique de la cour avec la question des formes féminines de l’exercice du pouvoir et de la place des femmes dans la société.
Premier ouvrage dédié à ce sujet, ce livre éclaire sous un jour nouveau l’histoire complexe de la présence féminine dans les cercles du pouvoir, du XVe au XIXe siècle.
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Books by Brian Sandberg
Engaging and insightful, War and Conflict in the Early Modern World will interest scholars and students of world history, the early modern period, and the broader relationship between war and society.
The Grand Ducal Medici and their Archive offers a unique window into early modern Florentine society through an exploration of the archives of the Medici ruling family. Teeming with circa three million letters, the archival collection of the Medici grand dukes housed at the Archivio di Stato in Florence chronicles the culture and history of Europe and beyond, across a span of over two hundred years. The letters of this collection, known as the Mediceo del Principato, embrace a great variety of themes including diplomacy, art, medicine, food, science, and warfare. Since its contents originate from a court archive that served both the state and a ruling family, this collection comprises administrative, political, and financial correspondence, as well as more private and intimate accounts of the Medici themselves and their activity at court. At the same time, it would be a great misconception to assume that this enormous archival corpus pertains just to Florence or just to the Medici, given that the vast majority of these missives were written by ambassadors, agents, and informants stationed throughout Europe. This volume, The Grand Ducal Medici and their Archive, aims to unlock not only the complex structure of the Mediceo del Principato but also the richness of its content. The sixteen essays address a variety of topics – book history, Ottoman relations, collections of New World artifacts, medical history, gender studies, and material culture – all with direct reference to the Medici grand duchy. The original research that supports these studies was drawn in part from the Medici Archive Project's online platform (BIA) for querying over 350,000 digitized and/or transcribed letters. Making use of these and other original sources, the essays in The Grand Ducal Medici and their Archive shed new light on the mechanisms and strategies that enabled Florence to emerge from decades of internecine conflict and diplomatic chaos in order to enjoy cultural and political prominence.
Warrior Pursuits analyzes in detail how provincial nobles engaged in revolt and civil warfare in southern France between 1598 and 1635. The southern French provinces of Guyenne and Languedoc suffered almost continual religious strife and civil conflict in this period, providing an excellent case for investigating the dynamics of early modern civil violence. Brian Sandberg's extensive archival research on noble families in these provinces reveals that violence continued to be a way of life for many French nobles, challenging previous scholarship that depicts a progressive "civilizing" of noble culture. He argues that southern French nobles engaged in warrior pursuits -- social and cultural practices of violence designed to raise personal military forces and to wage civil warfare in order to advance various political and religious goals. Close relationships between the profession of arms, the bonds of nobility, and the culture of revolt allowed nobles to regard their violent performances as "heroic gestures" and "beautiful warrior acts." Warrior nobles represented the key organizers of civil warfare in the early seventeenth century, orchestrating all aspects of the conduct of civil warfare -- from recruitment to combat -- according to their own understandings of their warrior pursuits.
Building on the work of Arlette Jouanna and other historians of the nobility, Sandberg provides new perspectives on noble culture, state development, and civil warfare in early modern France. French historians and scholars of the Reformation and the European Wars of Religion will find Warrior Pursuits engaging and insightful.
Articles by Brian Sandberg
Chapters in Collective Volumes by Brian Sandberg
Citation: “Ravages and Depredations: Raiding War and Globalization in the Early Modern World,” in A Global History of Early Modern Violence, ed. Erica Charters, Marie Houllemare, and Peter H. Wilson (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2020), 88-102.
À l'époque moderne, la cour de France offre un terrain particulièrement favorable au sexe féminin. Dès la fin du Moyen Âge, elle intègre un nombre croissant de femmes dont les offices se diversifient et gagnent en prestige. Les reines et princesses qui ont vécu au cœur de cette grande « cour des Dames » apparaissent au fil des pages de ce recueil, mais ce sont les dames et demoiselles, femmes de chambre et autres officières de leurs suites, des charges les plus élevées au plus modestes, qui sont au cœur de la réflexion.
En puisant dans un large éventail de sources, les enquêtes explorent leurs parcours ainsi que les stratégies et contraintes qui les ont marqués. Elles croisent la réflexion sur le fonctionnement sociopolitique de la cour avec la question des formes féminines de l’exercice du pouvoir et de la place des femmes dans la société.
Premier ouvrage dédié à ce sujet, ce livre éclaire sous un jour nouveau l’histoire complexe de la présence féminine dans les cercles du pouvoir, du XVe au XIXe siècle.
Engaging and insightful, War and Conflict in the Early Modern World will interest scholars and students of world history, the early modern period, and the broader relationship between war and society.
The Grand Ducal Medici and their Archive offers a unique window into early modern Florentine society through an exploration of the archives of the Medici ruling family. Teeming with circa three million letters, the archival collection of the Medici grand dukes housed at the Archivio di Stato in Florence chronicles the culture and history of Europe and beyond, across a span of over two hundred years. The letters of this collection, known as the Mediceo del Principato, embrace a great variety of themes including diplomacy, art, medicine, food, science, and warfare. Since its contents originate from a court archive that served both the state and a ruling family, this collection comprises administrative, political, and financial correspondence, as well as more private and intimate accounts of the Medici themselves and their activity at court. At the same time, it would be a great misconception to assume that this enormous archival corpus pertains just to Florence or just to the Medici, given that the vast majority of these missives were written by ambassadors, agents, and informants stationed throughout Europe. This volume, The Grand Ducal Medici and their Archive, aims to unlock not only the complex structure of the Mediceo del Principato but also the richness of its content. The sixteen essays address a variety of topics – book history, Ottoman relations, collections of New World artifacts, medical history, gender studies, and material culture – all with direct reference to the Medici grand duchy. The original research that supports these studies was drawn in part from the Medici Archive Project's online platform (BIA) for querying over 350,000 digitized and/or transcribed letters. Making use of these and other original sources, the essays in The Grand Ducal Medici and their Archive shed new light on the mechanisms and strategies that enabled Florence to emerge from decades of internecine conflict and diplomatic chaos in order to enjoy cultural and political prominence.
Warrior Pursuits analyzes in detail how provincial nobles engaged in revolt and civil warfare in southern France between 1598 and 1635. The southern French provinces of Guyenne and Languedoc suffered almost continual religious strife and civil conflict in this period, providing an excellent case for investigating the dynamics of early modern civil violence. Brian Sandberg's extensive archival research on noble families in these provinces reveals that violence continued to be a way of life for many French nobles, challenging previous scholarship that depicts a progressive "civilizing" of noble culture. He argues that southern French nobles engaged in warrior pursuits -- social and cultural practices of violence designed to raise personal military forces and to wage civil warfare in order to advance various political and religious goals. Close relationships between the profession of arms, the bonds of nobility, and the culture of revolt allowed nobles to regard their violent performances as "heroic gestures" and "beautiful warrior acts." Warrior nobles represented the key organizers of civil warfare in the early seventeenth century, orchestrating all aspects of the conduct of civil warfare -- from recruitment to combat -- according to their own understandings of their warrior pursuits.
Building on the work of Arlette Jouanna and other historians of the nobility, Sandberg provides new perspectives on noble culture, state development, and civil warfare in early modern France. French historians and scholars of the Reformation and the European Wars of Religion will find Warrior Pursuits engaging and insightful.
Citation: “Ravages and Depredations: Raiding War and Globalization in the Early Modern World,” in A Global History of Early Modern Violence, ed. Erica Charters, Marie Houllemare, and Peter H. Wilson (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2020), 88-102.
À l'époque moderne, la cour de France offre un terrain particulièrement favorable au sexe féminin. Dès la fin du Moyen Âge, elle intègre un nombre croissant de femmes dont les offices se diversifient et gagnent en prestige. Les reines et princesses qui ont vécu au cœur de cette grande « cour des Dames » apparaissent au fil des pages de ce recueil, mais ce sont les dames et demoiselles, femmes de chambre et autres officières de leurs suites, des charges les plus élevées au plus modestes, qui sont au cœur de la réflexion.
En puisant dans un large éventail de sources, les enquêtes explorent leurs parcours ainsi que les stratégies et contraintes qui les ont marqués. Elles croisent la réflexion sur le fonctionnement sociopolitique de la cour avec la question des formes féminines de l’exercice du pouvoir et de la place des femmes dans la société.
Premier ouvrage dédié à ce sujet, ce livre éclaire sous un jour nouveau l’histoire complexe de la présence féminine dans les cercles du pouvoir, du XVe au XIXe siècle.
La guerre a été le plus souvent conçue comme une activité humaine essentiellement masculine mais de récentes études ont montré que les femmes ont été fortement impliquées dans les activités militaires du passé. Les historiens des femmes ont souligné l’émergence des femmes soldats dans les armées modernes, en démontrant les rôles importants qu’elles ont joué dans les combats, dans les hôpitaux militaires, dans les services logistiques de l’armée ou encore au front. Les chercheurs ont retrouvé dans les archives un grand nombre de “guerrière exceptionnelles”, de femmes fortes et de travesties qui étaient engagées dans des conflits à diverses périodes historiques. D’autres ont exploré les étroites connections entre la culture militaire et les expressions belliqueuses de virilité qui façonnent souvent les grandes nations. Les dynamiques guerrières libèrent la violence sexuelle et une coercition de genre, en créant des blessures physiques pérennes et des traumas psychologiques pour les victimes, les auteurs et les témoins de cette violence. La guerre permet de changer radicalement les relations de genre dans les sociétés, en altérant les rôles sexués, les structures familiales, les modèles de mariage, les pratiques professionnelles, les lois et les attitudes culturelles. Les études de genre traitant de la violence organisée, se sont souvent et utilement, concentrées sur les contextes de coups d’état, de ruptures sociales et de bouleversements politiques, périodes clés de changement dans les discours de genre.
Cette journée d’étude se déroulera sous forme de tables rondes dans l’ambition de présenter de nouvelles recherches et de poser des questions méthodologiques inédites sur le genre et la guerre dans l’histoire européenne et mondiale de 1500 à nos jours. Les études de genre de Natalie Zemon Davies, Sonya O.Rose, Karen Hagemann, Susan R. Grayzel et d’autres, offrent des modèles utiles pour développer la recherche sur le genre et la guerre. Le livre de Joshua S. Goldstein, War and Gender: How Gender Shapes the War System and Vice Versa (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), interpelle les chercheurs pour qu’ils examinent « comment le genre façonne la guerre et comment la guerre façonne le genre ». Les participants de cette journée d’étude profiteront de cette confrontation entre genre et guerre, en considérant les diverses possibilités d’intervention des femmes dans la guerre et en réexaminant les thèmes « genrés » tels que les femmes dans la guerre, les corps disciplinés, le combat et le genre, l’honneur masculin, les communautés de campagne, le travail en temps de guerre, les agressions et émotions, la culture et la violence sexuelles, la prostitution militaire, le viol de masse, et les corps brisés.