Castles, Battles, and Bombs
How Economics Explains Military History
- Contents
- Review Quotes

Preface
Chapter 1. Economics
Principle I: Opportunity Cost
Principle II: Expected Marginal Costs and Benefits
Principle III: Substitution
Principle IV: Diminishing Marginal Returns
Principle V: Asymmetric Information and Hidden Characteristics
Principle VI: Hidden Actions and Incentive Alignments
Conclusion: Economics—and Military History
Opportunity Cost and Warfare
The Ubiquity of Castles
The Cost of Castling
The Advantages of Castles
The Cost of Armies
Castle Building and the Other Principles of Economics
Conclusion
Chapter 3. The Renaissance, 1300–1600: The Case of the Condottieri and the Military
Labor Market
The Principal-Agent Problem
Demand, Supply, and Recruitment
Contracts and Pay
Control and Contract Evolution
The Development of Permanent Armies
Condottieri and the Other Principles of Economics
Conclusion
The 1600s: Gustavus Adolphus and Raimondo de Montecuccoli
The 1700s: Marlborough, de Saxe, and Frederick the Great
Napoleonic Warfare
The Age of Battle and the Other Principles of Economics
Conclusion
North, South, and the Search for Information
Major Eastern Campaigns through Gettysburg
Grant in Virginia
The American Civil War and the Other Principles of Economics
Conclusion
A Strategic Bombing Production Function
Bombing German War Production
Bombing the Supply Chain and the Civilian Economy
Bombing German Morale
Assessing the Effect of Strategic Bombing
Strategic Bombing and the Other Principles of Economics
Conclusion
Chapter 7. The Age of the Cold War, 1945–1991: The Case of Capital-Labor Substitution and France’s Force de Frappe
History of the Force de Frappe
The Force Post–De Gaulle
Justifying the Force
The Force’s Effect on France’s Conventional Arms
Substituting Nuclear for Conventional Forces
The Force de Frappe and the Other Principles of Economics
Conclusion
Chapter 8. Economics and Military History in the Twenty-first Century Economics of Terrorism
Economics of Military Manpower
Economics of Private Military Companies
Economics, Historiography, and Military History
Conclusion
Notes
References
Index
“Rarely does reading a book offer such rewards. Unarguably scholarly, cast in Jared Diamond’s mold, Brauer and van Tuyll’s work transported this economic historian across centuries and into realms that opened my eyes and engaged my imagination, both as an historian and an economist. My understanding of a past I thought I knew has been broadened and deepened and my teaching of that past forever altered. I enjoyed the journey. I am in the authors’ debt.”
“[Brauer and van Tuyll’s] analysis and discussion of military history is fascinating and mirrors the substantial recent interest on the economic dimensions of conflicts and the fiscal important of strategic choices. . . . The strengths of this book include the clarity of the material and the writing style, the accessibility of both the economic theory and historical cases used, and the various illustrations and additional materials. . . . I can heartily recommend this for everyone interested in military history and on how economics theory can help us understand historical outcomes better.”
Economics and Business: Economics--General Theory and Principles | Economics--History
History: General History | Military History
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