The Italian Wars (1494–1559), fought by France, Spain, and Italian states on the Italian peninsula, saw the first widespread integration of firepower into battle and the development of a new kind of fortification, the trace italienne, to withstand the assaults. From this point on, dramatic changes in military technology, strategy, tactics, and organization—the military revolution—played a large role in shaping Europe. We still do not know enough about how soldiers experienced these changes, especially in the earlier phase. Idan Sherer's well-researched first book, Warriors for a Living: The Experience of the Spanish Infantry in the Italian Wars, 1494–1559, helps fill this gap by focusing on the emergence of the Spanish tercios, or infantry units, during the Italian Wars from the early 1520s to the late 1540s. Decades later, these troops composed the revered Army of Flanders, considered by Geoffrey Parker to be one of the most effective professional early modern armies. Sherer reveals how the foundations for this army were laid in Italy as Spanish infantrymen first grappled with firepower, new tactics and strategies, and everyday life at war. His book is essential reading on the Italian Wars and belongs to literature on the experience of war, common soldiers, and volunteer, professional forces.

Sherer crafts his perspective on the basis of archival sources found in Spain and Italy, as well as social scientific literature on war. Although his archival documents do not offer many subjective details, his attempts to get inside the heads of early sixteenth-century soldiers and to see infantrymen as “active contributors” (193) to military change are laudable. Through their perspectives, Sherer offers insights into iconic moments of the war, including the 1525 Battle of Pavia and the 1527 Sack of Rome. He emphasizes the common experiences of low-intensity warfare and daily life in the army. The use of firepower, while not yet revolutionary, altered the experiences of common soldiers in all of these areas. Sherer describes how Spanish tercio soldiers needed to “cope” (2, 236) and “adjust” (223, 235) to the sights, smells, and sounds of a new age of war. In doing so, common soldiers bore the weight of military transformation and influenced the direction of change.

Sherer's book is divided into sections on recruitment, everyday life, mutiny, the sack, and combat. Throughout, he is interested in understanding professional soldiers on their own terms. In the chapter on mutiny, he argues that military insubordination was a key part of professional experience for soldiers frequently deprived of wages and provisions. Even common soldiers negotiated astutely with their superiors. In the chapter on the sack—one of the most violent moments of early modern war—Sherer combines early modern historical expertise with his study of twentieth-century atrocities. While early modern laws and customs permitted violence against civilians, the behavior of soldiers sacking cities was also the outcome of long periods of extreme deprivation. Fascinating and unusual gems appear throughout the book, hinting at larger cultural contexts. For example, in the chapter on everyday life, Sherer discusses the behavior of Spanish soldiers, steeped in ideas about limpieza de sangre, toward Italian Jews, some of whom arrived in Italy after expulsion from Spain. In another example, Sherer describes Spanish warrior ideals of honor, self-discipline, and brotherhood. It would be useful to know more about the ways in which a distinctive Spanish cultural background shaped life at war as Spanish soldiers traveled through foreign lands. Sherer also briefly discusses soldiers’ gambling habits and the reaction of a group of soldiers to the execution of a pregnant camp follower, demonstrating wide-ranging curiosity about soldiers’ experiences.

This book's major impact is that it provides a fuller understanding of what early sixteenth-century war was like. It's hard to fault the book for losing the thread of the high political narrative, since the machinations at distant courts and the ambitions of rulers were probably not on the minds of infantrymen entering battle. And yet for an even fuller understanding of war, it is necessary to grasp the way realities in the field were indeed connected to what happened at court. Nonetheless, Sherer largely achieves his goals. He gives the reader a finer understanding of the motivations, challenges, strategies, and aspirations of the early modern Spanish soldier, urging us to rethink the complex experiences of professional and volunteer soldiers in any era.