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

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In 1939 the German General Staff chose not to learn from the mistakes of the First World War, still looking back to the decisive victory against France seventy years earlier. g. how Switzerland as we know it came to be, or how the Holy Roman Empire's amoeba X-volved into another imperial amoeba, the Austro-Hungarian.

Furthermore, if those who decide the allocations of the real and unreal are cruel, mad or colossally wrong, what then? To explain modern Germany’s aggression, Anglophone military historians have often claimed the existence of a uniquely German way of war. Some readers might find the vast amount of information overwhelming, and at times, the narrative might meander into minute details that could have been condensed. Looking beyond Prussia to German-speaking Europe across the last five centuries, Wilson finds little unique or preordained in German militarism or warfighting. There is a lot of history going on and I frequently had to check on what or who something was and when something occurred.Recovering the complexity of German military history gives us a fresh perspective—one that is especially welcome at the current moment, when Germany is debating what its role should be as cannons fire and bombs drop yet again in Europe. 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 book finishes with a look at re-unified Germany, leading to the events of the day, and even here the author keeps his eye on the ball. Iron and Blood is a monumental and comprehensive exploration of the German-speaking world from the early modern period to modern times. He captures the essence of these tumultuous times, where the German people struggled for identity and unity amidst external pressures and internal strife.

I had very high hopes for this book (especially after just finishing Napoleon the Great) but it really disappointed. Harvard University Press books are not shipped directly to India due to regional distribution arrangements.

He has appeared on BBC Radio and has written for Prospect, the Los Angeles Times, and the Financial Times. 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.