Fortifications History

I have long been fascinated with the architecture of ancient, medieval and more modern fortifications. My original focus was on seacoast or harbor defense, especially those of the U.S. in the Endicott and Taft period (roughly 1885-1914), remains of which can be seen along both the East and West Coasts, though few retain any of their guns. Our first trip to Britain in 1987 turned me into a castle nut as well. And in 1995 I finally got into my first Maginot Line fortress, satisfying a long existing desire to see these 1930s' cement installations that are largely underground. I've collected books on all of these for some time. Here is just a sample of the more useful websites and some suggesting reading as well. Shown on the left is a detail from one of many American "Third System" (pre-Civil War) coastal forts built of stone and brick and designed for smoothbore canons. Arrival of far more powerful rifled artillery made these massive installations obsolete, and many are now state or national parts, well worth visiting.

Websites

Castles on the Web One of the older and bigger websites concerned with medieval castles, especially those in Britain. Many useful links.

Coast Defense Study Group This is the organization if the topic interests you--they issue an excellent quarterly newsletter and a top-quality quarterly Coast Defense Journal to which I've contributed book reviews for years. They also publish an excellent guide to the subject and have reprinted earlier works. The site provides many further links.

Fire Control Towers of Portsmouth, NH We spent a fascinating (and very hot!) summer day several years ago seeking these out. The cement multi-story towers were used for coast artillery spotting, and many of them remain all the way down the coast to Virginia. One or two are open as a part of state parks.

The Maginot Line There are now numerous related sites on this French 1930s defensive line that faced Italy to the south, and Germany on the north. This is one of the better ones and appears in English:

Atlantic Wall Hitler's attempt to fortify the coastlines from Norway south through France was a huge and expensive failure--but has left fascinating bits and pieces to visit today. We've seen a few on the Normandy beaches.

19th Century Fortification Library Great example of resources the Web can make available---this includes a host of reproductions of important books on fortification. It includes books and reports from several countries, many with fascinating illustrations.

Suggested Books

Anderson, William. Castles of Europe: From Charlemagne to the Renaissance. London: Paul Elek; New York: Random House, 1970. Lovely coffee-table book with an informed text.

Berhow, Mark A., ed. American Seacoast Defenses: A Reference Guide. Bel Air, MD: Coast Defense Study Group Press, 1999; expanded edition, 2004. Wonderful compilation–by far the most inclusive single volume, well illustrated and authoritative.

Brown, R. Allen. English Castles. London: Batsford, 1954, 1962, 1976 (reprinted Chanticleer Press). Standard history by an authority, this ranges over the whole history rather than providing a directory of sites (of which there are many good ones--see Fry, below).

Castles: A History and Guide. Poole, England: Blandford, 1980.Covers all of Europe and then some, combining useful description with a directory of the most important castles to visit.

Duffy, Christopher. Fire and Stone: The Science of Fortress Warfare, 1660-1860. Newton Abbot, England: David and Charles, 1975. A standard brief history of the architecture of stone fortresses.

(Ibid). Siege Warfare: The Fortress in the Early Modern World, 1494-1660. London: Routledge, Kegan Paul, 1979. Here "modern" means after the introduction of cannons and gunpowder, as castles were modified or replaced to meet the threat of the new weapons.

(Duffy). The Fortress in the Age of Vauban and Frederick the Great, 1660-1789: Siege Warfare, Volume II. London: Routledge, Kegan Paul, 1985. Continuation of the above focusing on the work of the French and German geniuses of fortress design.

Eis, Egon. The Forts of Folly. London: Wolff, 1959. Classic debunking of the value of walls and forts—argues that they will always fail. Not an easy book to find.

Floyd, Dale E., compiler. Military Fortifications: A Selective Bibliography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press "Bibliographies and Indexes in Military History," 1992. Best survey bibliography with brief annotations.

(Ibid). Defending America's Coasts, 1775-1950: A Bibliography. Alexandria: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1997 (2nd ed.). Some annotation–but by far the most complete listing.

Fortress. London: Osprey, continuing. This is a series (now with more than 60 brief paperback titles) that ranges over the entire history of human fortification, from the ancients to modern war.

Fry, Plantagenet Somerset. Castles of Britain and Ireland: The Ultimate Reference Book—A Region-By-Region Guide to Over 1,350 Castles. Newton Abbot, England: David & Charles, 1996 (2nd ed.). A bit large for the coat pocket, but a very useful directory, arranged by area and then by castle name.

Herman, Marguerita Z. Ramparts: Fortification from the Renaissance to West Point. Garden Park City, NY: Avery Publishing, 1992. Well-illustrated history focusing on the period 1500-1850.

Higham, Robert, and Philip Barker. Timber Castles. London: Batsford, 1995. The very earliest castles, built before the use of stone.

Hogg, Ian V. The History of Forts and Castles. London: Orbis, 1981. Still a standard survey history ranging over many centuries. This is a good place to begin.

(Ibid). Coast Defences of England and Wales, 1856-1956. Newton Abbot, England: David and Charles, 1974. The standard history, though not easy to find anymore.

Hughes, Quentin. Military Architecture: The Art of Defence from Earliest Times to the Atlantic Wall. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1974; Liphook, England: Beaufort, 1991 [2nd ed.]. Excellent survey by an authority, this is another good starting point.

Johnson, Matthew. Behind the Castle Gate From Medieval to Renaissance. London: Routledge, 2002. Good example of recent scholarly re-assessment of the changing role of the once-military castle.

Kaufmann, J.E., and R.M. Jurga. Fortress Europe: European Fortifications of World War II. Conshohocken, PA: Combined Publishing, 1999. Very useful study of more recent "cement and steel" defense lines built by both sides.

(Ibid) and H. W. Kaufmann, Fortress Third Reich: German Fortifications and Defense Systems in World War II. New York: Da Capo, 2003. Includes the Atlantic Wall (1941-44) among many other systems, with good diagrams and photos.

(Ibid), Fortress America: The Forts That Defended America, 1600 to the Present. New York: Da Capo, 2004. Perhaps the best one-volume introduction, made stronger by good diagrams and photos.

Lawrence, A.W. Greek Aims in Fortification. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1979.
A standard work (by the historian brother of "Lawrence of Arabia") with supporting plans and photos.

(Ibid). Trade Castles and Forts of West Africa. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1964.
Again, a standard work of the striking buildings constructed primarily for the grim slave trade.

Lewis, Emanual Raymond. Seacoast Fortifications of the United States: An Introductory History. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1970. Almost too brief–this is the book that first hooked me.

Muller-Wiener, Wolfgang. Castles of the Crusaders. London: Thames and Hudson, 1966.
Wonderful pictures and plans--one of the best of a growing library of works on castles in the Middle East.

Mallory, Keith, and Arvid Ottar. The Architecture of War. New York: Pantheon, 1973. (Published as Architecture Of Aggession, London: Architectural Press, 1973). Very interesting study of the period 1880-1970, with a focus on Britain and Europe.

Roberts, Robert B. Encyclopedia of Historic Forts: The Military, Pioneer, and Trading Posts of the United States. New York: Macmillan, 1988. Definitive directory (arranged by state) with extensive annotations on the forts and posts in each, arranged alphabetically.

Robinson, Willard B. American Forts: Architectural Form and Function. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1977. Not easy to find, but a fine resource that focuses on fort design.

Saunders, Andrew. Fortress Britain: Artillery Fortifications in the British Isles and Ireland. Liphook, England: Beaufort, 1989. Solid history from late castles up to and after World War II.

Thompson, M. W. The Rise of the Castle. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1991. How and why. See next title.

Thompson, M. W. The Decline of the Castle. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1987. Again, how and why. These two books provide a clear analytical history of the building type.

Toy, Sidney. A History of Fortification from 3000 BC to AD 1700. New York: Macmillan, 1955.
Old but still useful, especially for his careful plans of castles.