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

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The author explores how militaries got along with broader society. This ranges from dry discussions of political support for fighter jet upgrades to midlly more interesting accounts of how German civilians coped with their nation's cataclysmic defeat in 1945. 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. It took two world wars to expose the fallacy of German military genius. Yet even today, Wilson argues, Germany’s strategic position is misunderstood. 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. It has been said that historians tend to be boring, uninteresting people and that academic historians are monumentally boring and exceptionally uninteresting.

Peter Wilson doesn't write many books, but the few that he does write are very long and very German. Iron and Blood follows his epic history of the Thirty Years War and his even more epic history of the Holy Roman Empire. 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. No one interested in the history of Europe can afford not to read this stupendous book' Simon Heffer, Daily Telegraph Dr. Wilson's writing style is basically boring. He's fond of lists: fortresses established in Berlin, Konigsberg, Dusseldorf, Leipzig etc etc. Readers accustomed to more engaging history writers like Stephen Ambrose of Band of Brothers Fame or German military historian Rob Citino will immediately note that Dr. Wilson is not a particularly gifted story teller. German military history is typically viewed as an inexorable march to the rise of Prussia and the two world wars, the road paved by militarism and the result a specifically German way of war. Peter Wilson challenges this narrative. Looking beyond Prussia to German-speaking Europe across the last five centuries, Wilson finds little unique or preordained in German militarism or warfighting. Audiobook) Settle in, for this is a long work. Wilson attempts to give a one-volume treatment to the military history of the German states/Germany, covering over 500 years. He captures a lot, but he can’t get everything. Wilson looks to dispel the myth that the German military really is based on the Prussian model and that it was at its peak in the 2 World Wars. There is far more to the story, as shown here.From the author of the acclaimed The Thirty Years Warand Heart of Europe, a masterful, landmark reappraisal of German military history, and of the preconceptions about German militarism since before the rise of Prussia and the world wars. 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. Its military experience has also been extraordinarily varied: threatened and threatening; a mere buffer-zone, and a global threat. Iron and Blood delves into politics, economics, technology and social developments. 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. The Economist 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. I just keep thinking there is more to say - although such stories might be much more involved. The Big Read of Spring 2023. (There. Is. Another.) Extremely interesting, trying to cover 600 years of history – and successfully rewrites the conventional wisdom about German-speaking nations supposed "innate militarism". Especially the early parts of the book are true eye-openers, e.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.

Starting in 1500 with the Holy Roman Empire describing the relationship between the electors and empire and between each other, reasons when the war was deemed as permissible, means to wage the war, day to day of the army, relationship between the army and the civilian, advances in weaponry and strategy and how those changed the face of war. All this and more is in the book, each theme having its own subdivision.Endlessly fascinating ... History has returned to Europe, and Iron and Blood is an excellent place to start getting reacquainted with it' The Times An ambitious book which was badly needed ... illuminating on the complicated relationship between Prussia, both state and society, and its army .... required reading for serious military historians. Barney White-Spunner, Aspects of History The two world wars have generated an almost incomprehensible amount of historical writing, but have also posed a historiographical problem: they have “stunted debate and frozen German military history”, as Peter Wilson puts it. Historians imagine that all German military history is rooted in Prussia; and they write mainly about battles. The existing literature focuses on the period between German unification in 1871 and the Third Reich’s destruction in 1945, to which all roads are seen to lead. Formidably erudite ... What is now Germany's shameful past was once Adolf Hitler's vision of the future. Reimagined by Vladimir Putin, that spectral vision now haunts our present. Hence the importance and urgency of Wilson's investigation. Daniel Johnson, The Critic Iron and Bloodtakes as its starting point the consolidation of the Holy Roman Empire, which created new mechanisms for raising troops but also for resolving disputes diplomatically. 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. 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. Prussia, meanwhile, invested in militarization but maintained a part-time army well into the nineteenth century. Alongside Switzerland, which relied on traditional militia, both states exemplify the longstanding civilian element within German military power.

The scholarship of this book is breathtaking [and] Wilson relates it with a command of his subject that is unparalleled. No one interested in the history of Europe, and of the Germans in particular, can afford not to read this stupendous book. Simon Heffer, Daily Telegraph I can't pretend that looking at 'German' speaking people doesn't make for a complex and large history but it avoids the anachronisms that writing a 'nation' based history involves. The book'sEven the last 100+ years get an interesting and compelling rewrite. 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). 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. Wilson outlines the evolution of cavalry, artillery and firearms, and the increasing sophistication of tactics and fortifications. The justifications for war also evolved: the Christian ideal of the “just war”, which Wilson defines as a war sanctioned by a properly constituted authority, fought for a just cause, after all other remedies had been exhausted, and in which only essential force is used, rather than gratuitous violence, had fallen out of the rhetoric by the 17th century, to be replaced by “the public good”, vindicating wars of expansion, aggression and conquest stimulated by greed and ideology. A work of first-rate scholarship ... will become the starting point for all students of military history, not only of Germany but of Europe as a whole. Jonathan Boff, BBC History Magazine The book deserves all the plaudits heaped upon it is important and fascinating, the centrality and importance it gives to the Holy Roman empire between 1400 and 1700 and also Hapsburg/Holy Roman Empire/Swiss relations will probably be a revelation to most Englsih language readers as will the continuities over the centuries and the role of the Austrian/Austro-Hungarian empire within the story.

A thorough/detailed book indeed, but I've felt the balance of details was a bit off, some numbers could be omitted, as well as enumeration of certain facts. Overall, liked the book a lot and the title of the book lives up to its name. The author has chopped his book into 5 sections: the 1500s, 1600s, 1700s, 1800s, and last, but certainly not least, the rather bloody 1900s of toothbrush moustsche notoriety. Each century is sub-divided into three chapters: 1. A summary of (numerous) wars. Those who like traditional battle narratives may be saddened to learn that Dr Wilson limits discussion of actual fighting to brief, dry summaries: Count Goring von Hess defeated Burgomeister Hitler Rommelstein at the battle of BarbarossaAuschwitz and then most of the Army succumbed to dystentery forcing an anti-climactic peace. Endlessly fascinating ... History has returned to Europe, and Iron and Blood is an excellent place to start getting reacquainted with it. Oliver Moody, The TimesPeter H Wilson, Chichele Professor of the History of War at Oxford University, has written a magnificent new book showing that Germans’ relationship to warfare is far too complex, varied and, indeed, interesting to be distilled so simplistically. Whereas most studies cover only the blood-soaked eighty years from the wars of unification in the 1860s to the end of the Second World War in 1945, Wilson takes his readers through a full half-millennium of German warfare, from 1500 to the present. 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. Iron and Blood describes the martial actions behind the major political upheavals in this territory. 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.