460 Book Reviews

The War of Austrian Succession, Reed Browning (New York, St. Martin's Press, 1993),
445 pages, $45.00 cloth.

Reed Browning's scholarly work is true history in the best sense of the traditional
meaning of the exercise. It is an in-depth study based on a plethora of primary and
secondary sources, all listed so that other scholars may pursue them, on the strategy and
tactics of eighteen century warfare in Europe as well as on the diplomatic factors that led
to war, and in this particular study, to the war of Austrian Succession. Better yet, it is
unencumbered by the weight of one or more current ideologies driving so many history
monographs over and into the intellectual abyss.
If we can describe Europe's present day nation-states as 'organic', founded on a
citizenry bound together by language and tradition and actively driving their
government's agenda, her states in the eighteen century are best described as 'inorganic'.
Hence, eighteen century diplomacy not only was expressive of the interests of a privileged
few, but more often than not fabricated within the perspective of the various monarchical
courts which viewed themselves as the exclusive possessors of that plenipotentiary
authority propelling the actions of states. The reason for war then was far removed from
the everyday concerns of the overwhelming majority of subjects who happened to live
in--unheard it would seem--in the territories governed by monarchs occupying the
cynosure of courtly activity ensconsed in residence and capital cities like Paris, Vienna or
Berlin. Professor Browning, making ample use of archival sources still to be found in these
cities, painstakingly both traces and analyzes the desires, fears and intrigues that wove
together the diplomatic fabric resulting in wars like that of the War of the Austrian
Succession. Nevertheless, the modern reader, sharing few of the assumptions and
presuppositions of an eighteen-century courtier, is left somewhat perplexed over the lack
of any seemingly solid, and overriding reason forcing the monarchs to so easily resort to
the exercise of war. But perhaps that very perplexity is lesson enough in and of itself for
having attempted to fathom the eighteenth century European political world.
The strategy and tactics of war, of course, involved many of the hapless subjects who,
either as recruits or inhabitants, stood in its path. More often than not, however, plans of
actions--to say nothing of grand schemes--came to nothing. The fighting degenerated
into a bloody and ad hoc melee which all too often failed to accomplish any ostensible
purpose other than human and material destruction; results moreover, of which the
courts, happy in their Baroque isolation, were appraised sometimes only weeks after the
action. Hence the interaction between the results on the battlefield and the political
strategy of the courts--and between strategy and diplomatic activity--was indirect at
best. And moreover, the reader is left wondering, not only over the superficiality ofintra-
European political activity, but concerning the reasons why the various courts--so often
taken up with the arts of the Enlightenment at home--not only permitted but promoted
the useless slaughter and destruction to say nothing of the general suffering. But this
bewilderment too only further underscores the gulf that exists between the assumptions of
the likes of a Frederick the Great or a Maria Theresa and the twentieth century student
reading of their activities. By the same token this realization in an of itself is an education.
And so one begins to comprehend the causes for those drum rolls that prove to be the
opening sounds of the French Revolution.
Browning's study is a well and closely crafted history. It has the added advantage of
offering a thorough and up-to-date bibliography of primary and secondary sources. And
then there is that other advantage: The War of Austrian Succession is free of that sort of
ideologically motivated puffery that so often today robs Clio of her substance.

George Strong
College of William and Mary

History ~" European Ideas