A Duel of Giants: Bismarck, Napoleon III, and the Origins of the Franco-Prussian War [Hardcover]

David Wetzel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 10, 2001

Combining impeccable scholarship and literary elegance, David Wetzel depicts the drama of machinations and passions that exploded in a war that forever changed the face of European history.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Despite the title, the Prussian minister-president and the nephew of the first Napoleon have minor roles in abetting the war that would topple the emperor and unify Germany. The aging Napoleon III, after 22 years in power, was slipping. As the succession crisis in Spain (the ostensible cause of the war) played out, Bismarck was vacationing at his isolated estate in Pomerania. Wetzel's (The Diplomacy of the Crimean War) hero is William I of Prussia, who ultimately was willing to dissuade an ambitious young relative, Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, from accepting the Spanish throne. Hotheaded French ministers had feared that Hohenzollerns might be on both major borders. France had its own candidate, a son of the discredited former French king Louis Philippe, but he hadn't a chance. What the opportunistic foreign minister, the Duc de Gramont, wanted was to have William I back down, and to disavow any future intention to propose Leopold. The king bridled at that indignity. Napoleon, incited by a chauvinist press and clamoring ministers seeing war as a way to prevent Prussia from absorbing such south Germany states as Bavaria, acted against his interests. He needed time to salvage his economy and to survive into the young manhood of his only child. He would have neither. His army was inept and the Prussians were professionals. Wetzel closes his complete narrative with the French declaration of war, after which his "duel" would begin but not in these pages. Napoleon would be taken prisoner and die soon after in exile in England. Prussia would absorb the German states on the sidelines and William would become emperor of Germany. Bismarck would be acclaimed as the clever statesman who hoodwinked France into a losing war. The losing French politicians would write self-serving memoirs. The pages on the Spanish succession are boringly complex and the tangled negotiations leading up to the war will interest only specialists in the period. 13 illus.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Wetzel, author of The Diplomacy of the Crimean War (1976), turns the tables on those historians who, over the past decades, have argued against the "great man" school of history in favor of determinist, "bottom-up" forces. In this forceful work of history, the author illustrates how two dynamic statesmen--Napoleon III and Otto von Bismarck--epitomized the epic confrontation of striking personalities. This is the first book in English on the origins of the Franco-Prussian War in almost 40 years. Wetzel manages to present these two leaders--and a cast of influential underlings--negotiating their way into a war for which neither of them had the heart. Napoleon III was apprehensive about the consequences of a French defeat (and too sickly to care, frankly, by the start of the war), and Bismarck's victory was, indeed, a Pyrrhic one, because it gave the French a decades-long excuse to prevent total German unification. This is truly an important work in its refocusing of attention on a diplomatic struggle that has been long been ignored. Allen Weakland
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 264 pages
• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press; 1st edition (October 10, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0299174905
• ISBN-13: 978-0299174903
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,288,219 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Origins of the Franco-Prussian War, February 19, 2002

By 

Frank J. Konopka (Shamokin, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Duel of Giants: Bismarck, Napoleon III, and the Origins of the Franco-Prussian War (Hardcover)

Most Americans don't know a lot about the intrigues that led up to the French declaration of war against Prussia in 1870, a calamity that led to the downfall of Napoleon III and his Second Empire. This book aims to bring light to that era, and does it fairly well. I think, however, that this was not written for the casual reader, but rather for those who already possess some knowledge of the personalities and issues of the day. Often the author speaks about some person or incident as if the reader should know about this man or thing already. With no explanation given, the lay reader is at a complete loss to understand what's happening, or who's doing something. Also, the language of the work does not allow easy reading; it's more academically oriented, with many references to other historians and their works and opinions on the subject. I did learn much that I didn't know before, howver, particularly about the famous Ems telegram, and the author's opinion that it was not the overriding cause of the war that I had always believed it to be. For that alone, I thought this book worth reading.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Franco Chauvinism and Prussian Power, April 23, 2002

By 

"guiscard" (Toms River, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Duel of Giants: Bismarck, Napoleon III, and the Origins of the Franco-Prussian War (Hardcover)

The title of this detailed account of the origin of the FrancoPrussian war in 1870 refers to Louis Napoleon 3, nephew of Napoleon, and Otto Bismarck. The FrancoPrussian War ended the government of Emperor Louis Napoleon 3 and gave Bismarck the opportunity to unify Germany.

Wetzel begins his book by describing the characters. There is the French Emperor Louis Napoleon and his diplomats Ollivier, Gramont. Their Prussian opponents are chancellor Bismarck, and Kaiser William and their subordinates. Then Wetzel explains the background, the decline of French power and the rising strength of Prussia. We see how Ollivier, Gramont and Empress Eugenie let their passions and nationalist chauvinism blind them to the new weakness of the French army and the growing strength of Prussia

Wetzel explains the complicated succession struggle in Spain. No candidate could hope to win without total permission of France. Wetzel analyzes Bismarck's complex policy toward the succession and France and comes to some non traditional conclusions.
Wetzel follows the actions of Bismarck and Napoleon 3, as well as the actions and mistakes of their individual subordinates. We see the expertise of French diplomats such as Visconti-Venesto and Benedetti. Most of all we see the belligerence of Gramont, who left no mistake untried.

This book is not always easy to read, since Wetzel goes into great detail about the actions of all the diplomats involved. Wetzel bases his book on both primary and secondary sources and includes an informative bibliography with notes. This book ends right before the outbreak of the FrancoPrussian war, so there are no discussions of military strategy or tactics.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The diplomacy before the Franco-Prussian War of 1870., March 17, 2003

By 

Kevin M Quigg (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Duel of Giants: Bismarck, Napoleon III, and the Origins of the Franco-Prussian War (Hardcover)

A nice little read of the diplomacy of Bismarck and Napoleon III prior to the Franco Prussian War. What is so apparrent by this book is how the French and the French government were so arrogant about their power. Most people subscribe to the fact of Bismarck causing the war. However this book shows how the inflamed opinion of the French and their government led to the war. Popular opinion blames the Prussians but it was the French who caused the war.
Wetzel shows the French interfering in the affairs of the Spain to place their candidate on the throne. The Spanish provisional government was not especially interested in their candidates, and ultimately decided on a Prussian prince. This was even more unacceptable to the French government. They then demanded the Prussian prince to renounce the throne. This the Prussians did. Then they demanded the Prussians apologize for their actions and completely renounce any interest. When this did not happen, they went to war against a German nation angered by the French actions. Subsequent actions paint the French as the victims when the opposite was the case. The French played into the hands of Bismarck.
A great read for those interested in the diplomacy prior to the war. Michael Howard's Franco-Prussian War is also a great read of the war itself.