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

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Iron and Blood describes the martial actions behind the major political upheavals in this territory. Prussian could have been wiped from the face of the earth in the 1750s and the fact that it wasn't is only partly down to a flash of Frederick the Great's genius (a recklessness that got him into trouble in the first place). 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.

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. Each century is covered in one part, with each part divided into three sections: chronological history, strategic, logistic and tactical development, and the experience of warfare.Wilson’s fascinating and comprehensive chronicle reminds us that the country’s vaunted reputation was of recent vintage anyway and failed to encompass the many Germanic traditions that had little to do with Prussia, which was dominant for only a limited period. 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. For most of its existence German-speaking Europe has been splintered into innumerable states - some substantial (such as Austria and Prussia) and some consisting of just a few Alpine meadows. Granted, air power is not a factor before the 20th century, but sometimes, the in-depth breakouts aren’t consistent.

It covers from circa 1500 to the present day and includes Germany, Switzerland, Austria and those countries that were within their imperial realms. Furthermore, if those who decide the allocations of the real and unreal are cruel, mad or colossally wrong, what then?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).