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

Oxford historian Wilson (The Thirty Years War) delivers an encyclopedic survey of the “German way of war” as it developed in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland from the 16th century to the present day. Pushing back against the notion that German-speaking states “followed a uniquely belligerent and authoritarian Special Path (Sonderweg) that deviated from the rest of Europe,” Wilson contends that the horrific violence of the Thirty Years War (1618–1648) was “the inevitable consequence of the repeated failure of all parties to pay and supply their armies properly,” and explains how the 18th-century Prussian king Frederick II’s preference for “invading rapidly with overwhelming force” was influenced by his admiration for French king Louis XIV and Swedish monarch Charles XII. Prussia’s victory over Napoleon III in 1871 and “widespread admiration” for Prussian military theorist Carl von Clausewitz helped shape the notion, especially among outsiders, “that the Germans possessed a peculiar ‘genius for war,’ ” but Wilson highlights plenty of missteps and failures, including Austria-Hungary’s “over-hasty” declaration of war against Serbia in 1914 and Hitler’s doomed invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. Wilson’s relentless march across five centuries’ worth of military and political history is not for neophytes, but he successfully upends a regiment’s worth of prevailing wisdom. It’s a monumental achievement. (Feb.)