The Origins of War in Early Modern Europe

• The Origins of War in Early Modern Europe
  Edited by Jeremy Black - John Donald, 1987 – 271pp - £20

'Authors of traditional diplomatic history often just rummage around in the past picking out interesting facts and interpretations without any theoretical framework for judging importance other than their own feelings or intuitions.' Jeremy Black, the editor and instigator of this collection of ten essays, sets out to change this damning indictment of the history of foreign policy and diplomacy. Although these short studies on the origins of major European wars dating from the conflicts of Henry VIII of England to the Seven Years' War cannot redress this imbalance by themselves, they provide a useful and provocative starting-point for the inspiration of further research.