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

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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. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. 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. 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.

That's not to say that there is no coverage of important aspects of military history--we get an excellent section on the design of warships, for example--but while battles are referred to, they are not detailed as in purely military histories. As Germans usually faced enemies superior in terms of men and materiel, their consistent strategy was to strike hard and win quickly. Military buffs ought to be aware that this work doesn't focus on battles, operational details, or military nuts and bolts. Yet it also goes deeper, explaining how professional armies, technology and tactics developed, and how experiences of war and soldiering over a period of five hundred years profoundly shaped German society. Iron and Blood is a timely book , arguing powerfully that 'German history should not be read backwards'.

Both the empire and the Swiss Confederation were largely defensive in orientation, while German participation in foreign wars was most often in partnership with allies. Wilson attempts to give a one-volume treatment to the military history of the German states/Germany, covering over 500 years. Iron and Blood describes the martial actions behind the major political upheavals in this territory. This is what I would describe as “hardcore” military history, covering off areas as diverse as logistics, the rights of soldiers to marry and how armies were funded. Wilson’s point that German history, seen over the long term, consists of more than an endless series of wars.

Prussia, meanwhile, invested in militarization but maintained a part-time army well into the nineteenth century. 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. Wilson does note the Taiping Rebellion and the millions who died there (in discussing how it contrasted with, say, the losses from the Franco-Prussian War or the War of the Triple Alliance). Its military experience has also been extraordinarily varied: threatened and threatening; a mere buffer-zone, and a global threat.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. However if you’re looking to experience the history, the people and compile a working understanding of the interwoven strands then look elsewhere. 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.

The detailed description of weaponry, tactics and strategy of warfare and the dissemination of knowledge among the German-speaking people but also Europe through time is in itself highly interesting and worthwhile reading if one wants to understand how we went from having hundreds of thousands dead in a conflict spanning multiple decades to millions dead within just couple of years. 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. The concluding chapter didn't really bring the tome's major themes together and seemed an abrupt ending. 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. Granted I am more of a Modern European History student, so the early material was largely new to me. I should also note that the title might be a bit misleading in the sense that this is not an operational military history. Germany of course took the wrong path thanks to 'Prussian' militarism which we had to destroy, twice.