Iron and Blood: A Military History of the German-speaking Peoples Since 1500

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Prussia, meanwhile, invested in militarization but maintained a part-time army well into the nineteenth century.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Iron and Blood describes the martial actions behind the major political upheavals in this territory. Nor can I pretend that I have read all of this book - I have tried twice and have abandoned it not through any other reason than lack of time and also a failure to become as engaged with its subject as I had with his earlier books. The primary aggressor in Central Europe was not Prussia but the Austrian Habsburg monarchy, yet Austria’s strength owed much to its ability to secure allies.It begins with the early modern period, a time of great political fragmentation and religious upheaval. I’m also not sure that including the Swiss (because they were German speakers) really works, rather it adds to the loss of focus. There is a lot of history going on and I frequently had to check on what or who something was and when something occurred. His book - “Iron and Blood” is a history of all things military for German-speaking peoples since 1500. will become the starting point for all students of military history , not only of Germany but of Europe as a whole.

There was no long-term plan for how to wage war if the initial strike did not achieve immediate victory.From the Enlightenment and Romanticism to the cultural boom of the Weimar Republic, the author captures the vibrancy and complexity of German cultural contributions. This is very comprehensive but as with his 100 Years War book, Wilson has trouble not getting swamped in his narrative by including every historical event or detail.

Therein lies a key tenet that focusing on the popular and unquestioned explanation of "Prussian militarism" makes for a crappy understanding of German-speaking peoples' history and military history. While many conflicts and specific battles are referenced in passing here, the author's themes are far grander in design. I have never read a better background to the development of modern Switzerland with its unique military history, nor have I ever seen a work, even amongst those purporting to focus on the Hapsburg Empire(s), that more clearly highlighted their enormously underrated influence on the developing German way of war. Granted I am more of a Modern European History student, so the early material was largely new to me. The country now seen as a bastion of peace spends heavily on defense in comparison to its peers and is deeply invested in less kinetic contemporary forms of coercive power.A strength of the book lies in Wilson's ability to strike a balance between academic rigor and engaging storytelling.

Furthermore, if those who decide the allocations of the real and unreal are cruel, mad or colossally wrong, what then? The last section on the Twentieth Century is by far the longest, but even so feels slightly rushed and cursory. He delves into the machinations of power politics, diplomacy, and the role of charismatic leaders, demonstrating how they profoundly impacted the destiny of the German-speaking peoples. Professor Wilson's work suggests very convincingly that this leads to a kind of myopic focus on Prussia to the detriment of the much bigger historical forces in play. However massive the book is, I would have liked to see another 100 pages for this time period, as the analysis could have gone deeper into WWI and, to an extent, WWII as well.A DAILY TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022'No one interested in the history of Europe can afford not to read this stupendous book' Simon Heffer, Daily Telegraph'Endlessly fascinating . Iron and Blood is a startlingly ambitious and absorbing book, encompassing five centuries of political, military, technological and economic change to tell the story of the German-speaking lands, from the Rhine to the Balkan frontier, from Switzerland to the North Sea. Why I started this book: Interesting approach to German military history, by including all German speakers from 1500 to the present.