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

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A work of first-rate scholarship, rooted in broad and deep knowledge of the period and literature… Iron and Blood will become the starting point for all students of military history, not only of Germany but of Europe as a whole. A strength of the book lies in Wilson's ability to strike a balance between academic rigor and engaging storytelling.

There is inevitably a degree of overlap over these three topics, although Iron and Blood takes a wide ranging, rather than forensic approach to 500 years of German military history.You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Each section gets an overview of the geo-political situation, followed by more in-depth analysis of the military, from the leaders, to organization and equipment.

Instead, Wilson gives reasons why modern English-written works especially comb over well-trodden ground with respect to the history of military Prussia, while giving scarce attention to the leviathan that was the Holy Roman Empire during the 1500s-1700s.The scholarship of this book is breathtaking [and] Wilson relates it with a command of his subject that is unparalleled.

It focuses on what principalities eventually became Germany and Austria, along with others, especially Switzerland, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Don’t get me wrong, I have loved reading all I can get my hands on regarding WW1 and WW2, and the German military figures large in both. From the Enlightenment and Romanticism to the cultural boom of the Weimar Republic, the author captures the vibrancy and complexity of German cultural contributions. Another book, in English, which puts further nails in the coffin of the idea of Germany's Sonderweg (special path); that it is still necessary at the end of the first quarter of the 21st century shows the persistence of popular, and comforting, myths in popular history. It covers from circa 1500 to the present day and includes Germany, Switzerland, Austria and those countries that were within their imperial realms.Only after Prussia’s unexpected victory over France in 1871 did Germans and outsiders come to believe in a German gift for warfare—a special capacity for high-speed, high-intensity combat that could overcome numerical disadvantage. I had very high hopes for this book (especially after just finishing Napoleon the Great) but it really disappointed. He fails to note the Dunghan Revolt of Muslims (and others) in China or the southern Panthay Rebellion which both also had a huge butcher's list (p364). Wilson's focus examines the development of weapons, and the logistical evolution that supports the growth of standing armies through this period. His book’s geographical scope is similarly vast, encompassing all that once was German-speaking central Europe – lands which extended through and beyond modern Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Prussia, meanwhile, invested in militarization but maintained a part-time army well into the nineteenth century. Iron and Blood is also ambitious in its contextualisation of military history, drawing on political, economic, and social developments.The author of definitive books on the Holy Roman Empire and the Thirty Years War, Peter Wilson has with Iron and Blood written his masterpiece. Nevertheless, these are minor drawbacks that do not detract significantly from the overall quality of the work. While many conflicts and specific battles are referenced in passing here, the author's themes are far grander in design. We can learn all the intimate details of weaponry from the Thirty Years War or the Franco-Prussian War, but discussions of weaponry for Fredrick the Great aren’t there. 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.