Customer Reviews

The War of the Austrian Succession

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am very impressed with this book. The author has taken an immense amount of material on all the warring realms of the Europe in the mid 18th century and distilled it into a brilliantly executed and entertaining dissertation. The author maintains very clear objectives, discusses ramifications, maintains a global context and manages to keep the reader entertained throughout. The war which was really comprised of a number of regional conflicts and revolving alliances established a new order in Europe at the time. It was sparked by greed, opportunity and a change in national fortunes. Careers were made and destroyed and the balance of power in Europe was altered forever. Maps augment the text and I was particularly impressed with the author's ability to weave in details about the intricacies of warfare, of commerce and of society in the 18th century while not distracting from a structured discussion of the battles and their outcomes. Highly recommended.

I enjoyed reading this book, simply because there isn't too many books out there on the War of the Austrian Succession. In fact, I am willing to wager that probably only one American in 500 would know what this war was all about. (Maybe 1 in 1000?? One in 2000??)

I am pretty familiar with this war and that helps a lot. The book was written by scholar for scholars basically. Its not an easy book to read to the uninitated reader going in blind. I think I read one previous reviewer suffering from that element.

I thought the author have presented a very readable book, considering all the complex issues, battles and campaigns of this war. The author clearly defined this war as one of Empress Maria Thersea's finest moments as she fought off a very aggressive Frederick the Great and a superb Prussian army, gathered up alliances and waged an effective defense of her crown and territories although she lost Silesia for good.

If there was a weakness in the book, I thought the maps were totally lacking. Considering how important geography was in this conflict, the author should have put in some effort in giving the readers practical maps relating to the war. Some battle maps and illustrations would be nice too.

But its a book for scholars, written by one so I guess I may be asking too much here. Excellent book overall, well worth the time and money to get it and read it. Just have little bit of background to the conflict to get more out of it.

Mid Eighteenth Century political/military history is not everyone's cup of tea. The War of Austrian Succession does not have the cache of the better known Seven Years War or the War of Spanish Succession. Nevertheless, the War of Austrian Succession/Silesian Wars has a lot to recommend it. The story of the teenaged Maria Theresa who upon ascending the thrown is greedily attacked by Prussia, Bavaria and France is a great story. With no credible allies, Maria Theresa was able to rally her people to defend her empire.

Reed Browning is good writer and has the organizational ability to help the reader keep track of the myriad of diplomatic and military details. My only criticism is the pathetic maps that accompany the book. The poor author must have not found the money to include better maps with his book.

The War of Austrian Succession is an obscure war. Reed Browning has done a wonderful job of bringing a little known conflict to life.

I am always haunted by histories of virtually forgotten times. The conflict that seemed the center of man's history is now barely a footnote for most. The battles and leaders whose names millions thought would echo through the ages have been largely forgotten.

Well this book brings them back to life in a wonderful way. This is an overview and as such does not delve deeply into any particular person's character etc. but even in it's detailed overview of the era the author mamages to give a real sense of the personalities involved ....... with humor, tragedy, billiance and stupidity all present.

The author writes in a lively entertaining way - but it does help to have some basic background in Europe of the time. Be forewarned while battles are covered - they are done so in only a moderately detailed way - this is primarily a geo-political overview of the war ......... battles are subordinate to the greater story. If you are looking for detailed information on Frederick's early victories - this discusses them but not at the depth some pure military buff would want.

The only reason I can't give this master work 5 stars is the almost complete lack of maps. No way to see the geo-political landscape of the time and not one battle map which would have been hugely helpful. I cannot fathom why they weren't included. The two general maps that are in the beginning of the book are laughable.

An awesome read - heartily recommended. The author writes well and brings a 'forgotten' time to life wonderfully....but get yourself some reference maps to put everything in it's place !

I read this book because I knew nothing about the mid-eighteenth century in Europe, and I found the story to fascinating. I could have done with some decent maps. Those in the book could have been sketched by a four-year-old. No legends. Few labels. Forget trying to put them in any spacial context with the continent. Locating a town, river or natural feature that is central to the story is successful maybe 20% of the time.

The author's style, pompous and condescending, really got on my nerves. The hit rate for his attempts at irony and humor is also in the 20% range. I don't mind not knowing details, names, historical facts that he alludes to, as I said, I knew nothing when I picked up the book. He seems to be intentionally unhelpful, keeping the reader off balance as his narrative meanders. Characters and places appear suddenly with no introduction. If he were my instructor, I would be wary of trick questions on the exam.

Excellent book, very well written without any apparent bias that tinges far too many history books these days. It also appears to be a genuine, honest history without the author attempting to come to some grand reimagining of history. Highly recommended.

The book, being the primary book on the subject for non-specialists in English, delivers. Highly readable, factually accurate but not bogging down in detail. What more could anone ask for? Highly recommended.

I do a lot of research. Therefore I am quite delighted to find books like this, that are not only informative but hold one's interest by being so easy to read. The author has adopted a methodical approach that while clear and easy to follow, does not lapse into boredom through over repetition or using too many uncommon words.

The coverage of all the participants is very well done and throws a light of clarification on this war in a way that makes up for it being generally under-covered by other authors. I have not only found the sections on the war in Italy very interesting, but also extremely enlightening. I had expected to be less interested in the other sections as I had read of them before, but Browning has turned them into a good read as well. The result is that the whole book is delightful for anyone interested in the mid eighteenth century.

Highly recommended.

Mal. Wright.

The War of the Austrian succession began when Frederick the Great(as he was to become eventually) invaded Silesia on 16 Dec 1740 and ended with the signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748. This book is well-researched and a reader can be confident that an accurate and competent account is being read. Anyone who wants to read such an account will welcome this book. Solid, well-written, authoritative.

Reed Browning is my history professor at Kenyon College. This book was great. He writes about a lot of very confusing events in a coherent style, creating a wonderful narrative. I definitely reccomend this book to any history buffs.