David Bell
The Birth of Militarism in the West, 1789-1815
Militarism can be defined as the imposition of military values and customs on civilian society, politics and culture. The paper argues that militarism constitutes one of the principal legacies of the age of democratic revolutions and revolutionary war. It was only in this age that “the military” and “civilian society” came to be conceptualized as separate and opposing realms of human activity. As a result, qualities long associated with warriors-honor, masculinity, discipline, selflessness, a preference for glory over material gain-could now be presented as quintessential attributes of “the military,” and used to assert its moral superiority over an allegedly corrupt, materialistic “civilian” world. This moral superiority in turn became, for ambitious military figures, a source of political legitimacy distinct from both monarchical and democratic varieties, and eventually a justification for military rule. The paper will trace the birth of militarism during the age of democratic revolutions, with particular attention to France in the 1790’s, and show how it remained an important feature of political life in the west even after the end of the Napoleonic Wars.
David A. Bell is Sidney and Ruth Lapidus Professor in the Era of North Atlantic Revolutions, in the Department of History at Princeton University. His research and teaching is focusing on Modern French and European history. He is the author of Lawyers and Citizens. The Making of a Political Elite in Old Regime France (1994), The Cult of the Nation in France: Inventing Nationalism, 1680-1800 (2001), and The First Total War: Napoleon’s Europe and the Birth of Warfare as We Know It (2007), the last of which has been translated into French, Spanish and Portuguese. He is a member of the editorial board of The American Historical Review, and a Delegate for World History of the Oxford University Press (USA). He writes frequently for the general interest press, and is a Contributing Editor to The New Republic.
