New conference volume on pre-modern war entrepreneurship

In view of the recent wars in Africa and the Middle East, which were often fought with the help of mercenaries and private security firms, pre-modern war entrepreneurship has also come under new scrutiny. Contrary to what is often claimed, this was by no means only a transitional phenomenon in the development of the 'nationalised' army of the 18th to 20th centuries, but a phenomenon that transcended spaces and epochs. The volume edited by Dr. Markus Meumann (Gotha Research Centre at the University of Erfurt) and Dr. Matthias Meinhardt (Wittenberg) now brings together 18 contributions on the question of the political, social, technological and economic conditions under which such a connection between warlike and entrepreneurial action could arise, but also lose its significance again – without, of course, ever completely disappearing.