"Iron and Blood: A Military History of the German-Speaking Peoples Since 1500" by Peter H. Wilson is a thoroughly researched and comprehensive book about the military history of the German-speaking people, if you couldn't guess from the title. It is a detailed exploration of war, political creation, and destruction that has shaped the German-speaking people for the past four centuries.

The book begins with an introduction that explains the historical forces that united the German states into a political entity, while also giving a brief history of the concept of German-speaking people and discussing what distinguishes it from the political entity that is Germany.

The book provides a detailed examination of the wars of the past and shows how development in military strategy, tactics, and technology enabled them to repeatedly succeed in warfare. Wilson provides vivid accounts of significant battles throughout history,

Wilson also shows how Germany's military ability influenced the global political landscape. He details how different military leaders' decisions influenced the evolution of warfare. The book explores the moral and ethical dimensions of German militarism, which contribute to the development of their strategies and tactics.

The narrative style of the book is engaging and detailed, making it accessible to readers. The book is not just about military history but also explores social, political, and cultural aspects.

Overall, "Iron and Blood" is a comprehensive and informative work that offers a detailed view of the German-speaking people's military history and its impact on global politics. The book is recommended for students of military history, cultural history, and politics.

An extremely impressive history. Vast in scope, yet eminently readable, IRON AND BLOOD offers a new interpretation of the history of the Germanic people (it's not just Germany, but also brings in Austria, Switzerland, and the Prussian empire). It's persuasive and certainly does offer a lot of interesting history and interpretation for a new way to look at this topic.

Wilson's prose is for the main accessible and readable throughout, with the occasional more-stuffy section. It's substantial, which may give some readers pause, but if you are looking for a European history book that you can really sink your teeth into, then IRON AND BLOOD may just be what you're looking for.

I would also highly recommend it to university/college students who are taking course on German/European history. (I have recommended this to my own students, as it happens.)

Recommended.

Not through speeches and majority decisions will the great questions of the day be decided – that was the great mistake of 1848 and 1849 – but by iron and blood.
Otto von Bismarck

Otto von Bismarck was the “Iron Chancellor” of the unified German empire. A decade before taking on this role he testified before the Prussian budget committee regarding the need for more military spending. This famous quote promoted a mystique of German’s militarism that stood for centuries. Peter Wilson offers a more nuanced take on German military history in his 900 plus page treatise Iron and Blood: A Military History of the German-Speaking Peoples Since 1500.

The book is as much a history of Germany as it is a military history. Wilson goes through painstaking detail to describe the ever-changing political landscape of Europe leading up to World War I and II. While he notes that the German empire boundaries remained relatively stable from the late 1400s to early 1800s, the dominant European empires seemed to be in a constant swirl of change as nations’ rose and fell. Along the way parts of Europe became know for styles of fighting. Germans and the Swiss in particular were known for disciplined infantries, gun-making prowess, and their pistol-armed cavalries. As warfare evolved, they were considered superior in terms of being steady under fire and determined in attack.

Despite their superiority, the German military did not begin with some grand heritage of military service passed down through generations. Warlords relied on contracting mercenaries during the 1500s. They also used conscription to fill the lower ranks of the armies. Eventually in the 1600s there was a move towards standing armies that forced the government to find ways to better accommodate and pay forces.
Wilson also provides a detailed analysis of military structure and administration going back to the 1500s under the Habsburg monarchy rule. This includes the professionalization of military service with large scale printing making the study of war and military theory more accessible. This gave rise to great military thinkers like Carl von Clausewitz, a Prussian whose treatise “On War” added to the mystique of the superiority of the German military expertise. The German use of total war during World War I and II, which left no facet of live unaffected by war, continued the myth of the German military prowess.

Since World War II, Germany has largely rejected militarism and most of the modern public would be surprised to hear or read about the country’s complex military history. Books like Iron and Blood are a fascinating study of this issue. The only critique is that the book would probably be inaccessible to a large audience, especially with the current collective national attention span. This book is an investment of time, the most valuable resource, and few will have the luxury to make it. However, those who are willing will gain an advanced understanding of German and European history, context on how to build a military over time, background information on political history, and a window into wartime and post-war statecraft.

This review is based on receipt of an advanced review copy.

This is an immensely readable, though academic, work on the evolution of German army structure. Military buffs ought to be aware that this work doesn't focus on battles, operational details, or military nuts and bolts. 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.

Wilson's focus examines the development of weapons, and the logistical evolution that supports the growth of standing armies through this period. 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.

I found it especially worthwhile in tracing the path from the mass levies of medieval times through the hiring of mercenary armies to the idea of a standing army. And as I said above, there is at last equal attention given to Austrian development: I've only found good looks at equivalent developing of the Holy Roman Empire's military in books written in German. This goes for the Swiss military evolution as well--their soldiers once admired as the epitome of the warrior.

The writing is smooth and interesting, and the background research formidable. This is a book well worth having for anyone looking for reasons for military evolution through the middle of Europe before and during the Early Modern Period, which informs the shape of European interaction in the 20th Century.

I have just spent a very satisfying period of time studying an ARC of Professor Peter H. Wilson's magisterial tome entitled "Iron and Blood: A Military History of the German-Speaking Peoples Since 1500" (to be published by Harvard University Press).. While the book was weighty (976 pages in hardcover), I found it oddly hard to put down. For anyone even remotely interested in this subject matter, time spent in the perusal of this book is time well spent, It is thoroughly researched, and Professor Wilson has a deft touch and obvious command of the language which makes for a read the ease of which belies its length. I should also note that the title might be a bit misleading in the sense that this is not an operational military history. While many conflicts and specific battles are referenced in passing here, the author's themes are far grander in design. From weapons technology to bureaucratic and logistical concerns of the evolving military (for example in the design of warships and the casting of canon) as well as the growth of professional mass armies and their evolution from very different militia based feudal levies, the author marshals a formidable array of facts to support a very different perspective on his subject. I have never read a better background to the development of modern Switzerland with its unique military history, nor have I ever seen a work, even amongst those purporting to focus on the Hapsburg Empire(s), that more clearly highlighted their enormously underrated influence on the developing German way of war. Keep in mind that most books examining the evolution of German military thought and practice virtually ignore Switzerland and give equally short shrift to the Holy Roman Empire. Professor Wilson's work suggests very convincingly that this leads to a kind of myopic focus on Prussia to the detriment of the much bigger historical forces in play. Bravo Professor Wilson!

A thoroughly researched and well-written German military history from the 1500s to the present. As with previous books by Wilson, this one is also lengthy and presents a vast amount of content. Wilson takes a broad approach, covering German-speaking Europe and tying German military history into the wider array of political and cultural development to provide context, as he aims to break away from the static pre-conceived notions of German military history. The more familiar the reader is with Germany's history or the history of central Europe in general, the more they'll get out of it and be able to make thematic connections. It may be a tough read for anyone looking for an introduction into Germany's military history.

This is a book tailored to an academic rather than a popular audience. This is not for an audience looking for an introductory or readily available text on the applicable subject. The book requires a detailed knowledge of the prevalent political and social dynamics of the time in order to set the events in the appropriate context.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

This is an absolutely lovely brick. I loved reading it, and I recommend it highly. Wilson is the author of a similarly huge history of the Thirty Years War which I also really enjoyed, and he starts this book in 1500 in part because he knows that a lot of the "common wisdom" about things that started with or after the Thirty Years War is not true and wants to give a fuller context.

This book isn't called The Swiss: They Exist, Dammit but that's a major theme that works really, really well: Wilson doesn't mistake the current national boundaries among German-speaking peoples for inevitable eternal destiny, and this makes a lot of things make a lot more sense than they do if you assume that we have arrived at the one true set of national boundaries toward which everyone was always yearning. This is true of the Austrians but especially of the Swiss, they are so often relegated to "I dunno they were up in the mountains somewhere what do you want from me." Not this time. Detailed accounts of the establishment and maintenance of Swiss neutrality, Swiss mercenary corps, etc. Hurrah.

It's quite a long and eventful bit of history to cover, so my one complaint is that Wilson has chosen to divide into periods and then into theme within period...which is great...but his periods are extremely long. And I get that he has stuff he wants to cover about how various things in WWII segued directly into how militaries were handled in the divided Germanies of the 20th century and that segued into how the reunited Germany handles those same issues in the present, but...it made for a lot of back-and-forthing. 1930s to present is...rather long. As periods go for this kind of discussion.

Nevertheless, this is a book that has a lot of interesting things to say both about fun details with which you can amaze your family (plunderhosen, my pals) and about the larger patterns--and also what they weren't. It's the sort of book that seems essential once you have it.