From weapons technology to bureaucratic and logistical concerns of the evolving military (for example in the design of warships and the casting of canon) as well as the growth of professional mass armies and their evolution from very different militia based feudal levies, the author marshals a formidable array of facts to support a very different perspective on his subject. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. This astonishingly ambitious and detailed 900-page study of militaries in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland is not for the faint of heart. 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.

Its long view of Germany’s military history, magisterial detail and acute analysis provide a new understanding of what was once Europe’s warring heart. Wilson delves into literature, art, and philosophy, exploring how these expressions of German identity evolved over time. 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. He offers an absorbing overview of how slowly changing societal forces—such as fiscal systems, scientific and technological capabilities, ideological and cultural beliefs, and the social background of soldiers—have transformed the use of military force across modern times.However if you’re looking to experience the history, the people and compile a working understanding of the interwoven strands then look elsewhere. Not for the faint of heart, but great book for those looking for a broad overlook of military history and culture as it interacted and reacted to political currents and whims. This is an ambitious book which was badly needed given that so much of our recent history has been dominated by both the Hapsburgs and the Hohenzollerns and the consequences of their demise…Required reading for serious military historians.

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. If there's a second edition ever, I hope the author delves a bit more into explaining why the otherwise professional German armed forces were inclined to wage such brutal wars in the 20th century and to eventually support the genocidal Nazi regime. The key lesson is to NOT take the teleological view, reading all past events as if somehow (almost by destiny) culminating in the string of wars of 1866 + 1870-1871 + 1914-1918 + 1939-1945 and leading to the great reset, of "Zero Hour" in 1945 (followed by a new chapter).Their armed forces’ fighting style was characterised by a ruthless obsession with ‘military necessity’, a myopic focus on battlefield tactics and extraordinary violence.

Wilson masterfully navigates through the complex web of the Holy Roman Empire and the Thirty Years' War, shedding light on the divergent paths taken by the various German-speaking states. T he Germans have, as West Germany’s erudite first president, Theodor Heuss, once ruefully observed, acquired notoriety as ‘ the bellicose nation’. There is a lot of history going on and I frequently had to check on what or who something was and when something occurred. 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.Moreover, Wilson's treatment of the two world wars and the subsequent division and reunification of Germany is particularly praiseworthy. From the Enlightenment and Romanticism to the cultural boom of the Weimar Republic, the author captures the vibrancy and complexity of German cultural contributions. While many conflicts and specific battles are referenced in passing here, the author's themes are far grander in design.

Wilson belongs to a new generation of historians for whom military history is far more than a chronicle of commanders, campaigns, and decisive battles. But nonetheless I enjoyed reading through some of the trivia, especially around the late medieval and early modern eras, as well as the longstanding German obsession in the 20th century with a quick victory to stave off an extended two-front war.

The other type of reader is interested in what caused the great wars that defined European history over this period. Violence had stamped the German state since unification in the late 19th century and Heuss’s own republic had emerged in 1949 from the ashes of two devastating world wars instigated by German governments. BTW, the book finishes (and was finished) before large-scale land war again rose its head in Europe. Encircled by powerful neighbours, its people inevitably favoured authoritarian rulers able to mobilise for pre-emptive attacks. The book opens in the late-medieval heyday of the Holy Roman Empire, an intricate political entity of 226 lordships, counties and priories, eighty-six cities, eighty-three principalities and seven powerful electorates, whose rulers had the right to choose the emperor.