Professor of History Emeritus

Education: Ph.D., University of California at Los Angeles

Areas of Expertise

Military history of 17th and 18th century France; eras of military change; war and culture.

Biography

John Lynn’s interests include the history of Western and non-Western military institutions and warfare. His research has emphasized eras of military change, particularly in early modern Europe and South Asia; however his most recent book, Battle: A History of Combat and Culture (Westview Press, 2003 - revised edition 2004), spans the continents and the centuries. He has also written The Wars of Louis XIV, 1667-1714 (Longman, 1999), Giant of the Grand Siècle: The French Army, 1610-1715 (Cambridge University Press, 1997), and The Bayonets of the Republic: Motivation and Tactics in the Army of Revolutionary France, 1791-94 (Westview Press, 1996). Battle and The Wars of Louis XIV will appear in French editions in 2006. His edited volumes include The Tools of War: Ideas, Instruments, and Institutions of Warfare, 1445-1871 (University of Illinois Press, 1990) and Feeding Mars: Logistics in Western Warfare from the Middle Ages to the Present (Westview Press, 1993).

Professor Lynn currently serves as president of the U.S. Commission on Military History and vice-president of the Society for Military History. In 2001, Professor Lynn won the Campus Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, and in 2004, the French government awarded him the Palmes Académiques at the rank of chevalier.

Selected Publications

Books or Edited Collections:

Battle: A History of Combat and Culture (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2003). Revised and expanded paperback edition, 2004.

ed., ACTA of the XXVIIIth Congress of the International Commission of Military History (Chicago: McCormack Foundation, August 2003).

Articles or Book Chapters:

“Les enjeux d’une approche culturelle de l’histoire militaire,” in Séminaires de D.E.A. “Evolution des mondes modernes,” Année 2003-2004, Université Paris-Sorbonne, pp. 1-12.

“La guerre entre réalité et illusion: comment voir la défaite en face?,” in Séminaires de D.E.A. “Evolution des mondes modernes,” Année 2003-2004, Université Paris-Sorbonne, pp. 13-26.

“L’évolution du style des armées dans l’Occident moderne, 800-2000,” in La science et la guerre: l’impact de la technologie militaire (Canadian Armed Forces: 2004). (French translation of “The Evolution of Army Style in the Modern West”)

“Seeing War as We Want It to Be: An Obstacle to Learning the Right Lessons?,” in Lessons Learned or Not Learned: Military Responses to Success and Failure, Scot Robertson, ed. (forthcoming).

“A View from Above: Watersheds in the Evolution of War and Military Institutions during the Twentieth Century,” in War in the Twentieth Century: Reflections at Century’s End, Michael Hennessy and B.J.C. McKercher, eds. (Praeger: Westport, CT, 2003).

“Le discours et la realité de la guerre: un modèle culturel,” in Combattre, Gouverner, Ecrire: Etudes réunies en l’honneur de Jean Chagniot, Commission française d’histoire militaire, ed. (Paris: Economica, 2003), pp. 487-502.

“The Heart of the Sepoy: The Adoption and Adaptation of European Military Practice in South Asia, 1740-1805,” in The Diffusion of Military Technology and Ideas, Emily O. Goldman and Leslie C. Eliason, eds. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003), pp. 33-62.

“A Brutal Necessity?: The Devastation of the Palatinate, 1688-1689,” in Civilians in the Path of War, Mark Grimsley and Clifford Rogers, ed. (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2002), pp. 79-110.

“Guerre et culture, ‘Lumières’ et et Romanticisme dans la pensée militaire,” in La plume et le sabre, eds. Michel Biard, Annie Crépin, and Bernard Gainot (Paris: Sorbonne, 2002), pp. 327-344.

“Soul of the Sepoy,” MHQ, The Quarterly Journal of Military History, 15, no. 3 (Winter 2005), pp. 46-55.

“Ideals of Battle in an Age of Elegance,” MHQ, The Quarterly Journal of Military History, 15, no. 3 (Winter 2003), pp. 34-45.

Two entries in Amazons to Fighter Pilots: A Biographical Dictionary of Military Women, ed. Reina Pennington (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2003).

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Link(s)

http://www.history.uiuc.edu/people/johnlynn/

Contact Information

Mailing Address

History
309 Gregory Hall
MC-466

Phone

(217) 333-2035

Fax

(217) 333-2297

Email

johnlynn[AT]uiuc[DOT]edu