The origins of the modern science of engineering can be traced to France's Royal Corps of Engineering in the eighteenth century. Janis Langins gives us a history of this prototypical technical bureaucracy, using as his point of entry a pivotal dispute on the respective merits of two methods of engineering military fortifications. The story he tells of the tribulations of military engineers at the end of the Old Regime sheds light not only on the evolution of modern engineering but also on the difficulty of innovation in a technical bureaucracy.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [491]-521) and index.

I. Setting -- 1. Early Modern Artillery Fortification -- 2. French Fortification in the Age of Vauban -- 3. Toward a Corps Royal du Genie -- II. Life And Death in the Corps -- 4. Siegecraft -- 5. Desk Jobs -- III. Crisis -- 6. Engineering and Its Discontents -- 7. Soldiers, Nobles, and Engineers -- 8. Thinking Wars -- 9. Science and Military Engineering -- 10. Early Career of Marc-Rene, Marquis de Montalembert -- 11. Challenge of Montalembert -- 12. Response to Montalembert -- IV. Engineers and Revolution -- 13. Montalembert and the Engineers during the Revolution -- 14. Conservative Art of Military Engineering in Old Regime France.