Samuel Dodson

My PhD entitled The Common Cause’: How Britain and its Allies Wages War in Western Germany During the Seven Years War, 1758-1763’ studied the diplomatic, intelligence, military and engineering reasons for why Britain and her allies were successful at warfare in Europe during the Seven Years War. While focusing on Britain’s involvement in warfare on the European continent during the Seven Years War, the PhD also branched into many facets of eighteenth-century history, analysing the literature of the period, how intelligence networks functioned in Europe, how engineering affected logistical factors and the wider transport revolution, and Britain’s deep involvement with Europe in the period, rather than historiography’s preoccupation with Britain’s colonies and the rapid development of British empire. 

My research has also delved deeply into military education, especially analysing the mathematical and scientific education of cadets at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, and how ballistics literature of the period affected this development. Furthermore, my research has branched into military psychology of the eighteenth century, my article analysing what military writers wrote on the topics of fear and motivation for soldiers during this period. 

My research as a LAHRI Postdoctoral Visiting Fellow, entitled ‘Cabals and Intrigues’: British Intelligence Networks during the Middle of the Eighteenth Century, will analyse how British intelligence networks functioned in Europe during the middle of the eighteenth century, looking at how British diplomats developed and maintained intelligence superiority over their allies and enemies during the middle of the eighteenth century, and whether these began to break down during the American Revolution and its connecting conflicts. As such, it will provide timely knowledge on the understudied history of intelligence in the eighteenth century, in time for the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution. 

Publications

‘Courage, Honour, and Phlegm: A Study of Eighteenth-Century Military Writers' Descriptions of Soldiers' Combat Emotions and Motivation’, Journal for Eighteenth Century Studies, 46 (2023) (279–295). 

Samuel Dodson, Prussian Army Soldiers and the Seven Years War: The Psychology of Honour. By Möbius, Katrin and Möbius, Sascha. London: Bloomsbury. 2020. 228 https://doi.org/10.1111/1754-0208.12750 

Note 2001: The Death of Major Richard Davenport’, Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research (2019) 213-298 (p.286). 

Conferences and Presentations 

• Lancaster Histfest 2018: British Artillery during the Seven Years War 

• ‘Redcoats, Tommies and Dusty Warriors’ Conference, University of Leeds 2018: British Artillery during the Seven Years War. 

• ‘Preparing for Battle’ Conference, University of Leeds 2019: Eighteenth Century Military Literature. 

• British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (BSECS) 50th Annual Conference, 2021: Courage, Honour and Phlegm: An investigation into military intellectual’s opinions on the psychology of combat in the eighteenth century. 

• BSECS Postgraduate and Early Career Researcher Conference 2023, Errantry, Exile, and Elsewhere: ‘He frequents the cabarets, and drinks brandy, and when he is drunk, he commits atrocious follies': British Diplomatic Intelligence of the Stuarts during the Seven Years War. 

• British Commission for Military History, 14th Annual New Researcher’s Conference, 2023: ‘Cabals and Intrigues’: British Intelligence Gathering during the Seven Years War. 

• The Society for Army Historical Research Conference 2025: ‘Land Forces of the Crown, c.1660 to the Present’: ‘Unterricht für Officiere, die sich zu Feldingenieurs ausbilden wollen’: The duties of British and Allied engineers during the Seven Years War. 

• University of Leeds Seminar Series, April 2022: Cressener, George Cressener: Diplomats as Spies during the Eighteenth Century. 

• University of Leeds Seminar Series, January 2023: Benjamin Robins, the Ballistics Revolution and its effects on the artillery of the mid-Eighteenth Century. 

Teaching

I have taught modules on the expansion and decline of global empires, as well as more intimate studies of white settlers in Africa and their descendants. 

Qualifications

MRes, PhD (History)