This is a translation of Paris-Sorbonne history professor Andr? Corvisier's Arm?es et soci?t?s en Europe de 1497 ? 1789. This book demonstrates the close and complex relationship between a society and its army. Just as European society changed greatly between 1494 and 1789, a fundamental change took place in the role of the military. During the ancien regime, the professional use of arms evolved from a private to a public institution and the military became the essential instrument of state power. As Corvisier shows, warfare-long the sole preserve of the nobility-soon transcended the interests of a single class. He concludes that a military mentality was more pervasive in early modern Europe than has been assumed.