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Peter H. Wilson

The Thirty Years War: Europe’s Tragedy Paperback – October 15, 2011

by Peter H. Wilson (Author)

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A deadly continental struggle, the Thirty Years War devastated seventeenth-century Europe, killing nearly a quarter of all Germans and laying waste to towns and countryside alike. Peter Wilson offers the first new history in a generation of a horrifying conflict that transformed the map of the modern world.

When defiant Bohemians tossed the Habsburg emperor’s envoys from the castle windows in Prague in 1618, the Holy Roman Empire struck back with a vengeance. Bohemia was ravaged by mercenary troops in the first battle of a conflagration that would engulf Europe from Spain to Sweden. The sweeping narrative encompasses dramatic events and unforgettable individuals―the sack of Magdeburg; the Dutch revolt; the Swedish militant king Gustavus Adolphus; the imperial generals, opportunistic Wallenstein and pious Tilly; and crafty diplomat Cardinal Richelieu. In a major reassessment, Wilson argues that religion was not the catalyst, but one element in a lethal stew of political, social, and dynastic forces that fed the conflict.

By war’s end a recognizably modern Europe had been created, but at what price? The Thirty Years War condemned the Germans to two centuries of internal division and international impotence and became a benchmark of brutality for centuries. As late as the 1960s, Germans placed it ahead of both world wars and the Black Death as their country’s greatest disaster.

An understanding of the Thirty Years War is essential to comprehending modern European history. Wilson’s masterful book will stand as the definitive account of this epic conflict.

For a map of Central Europe in 1618, referenced on page XVI, please visit this book’s page on the Harvard University Press website.

Print length

1024 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press
Publication date

October 15, 2011
Dimensions

5.25 x 2.25 x 8.5 inches
ISBN-10

0674062310
ISBN-13

978-0674062313
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Editorial Reviews

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“In his monumental study of the causes and the consequences of the Thirty Years War, Wilson challenges traditional interpretations of the war as primarily religious. He explores instead the political, social, economic as well as religious forces behind the conflict...Wilson then provides a meticulous account of the war, introducing some of its great personalities: the crafty General Wallenstein; the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus, who preserved his state through canny political treaties and military operations; and Hapsburg archdukes Rudolf and Matthias, the brothers whose quarrels marked the future of Bohemia, Austria and Hungary. By the war's end, ravaged as all the states were by violence, disease and destruction, Europe was more stable, but with sovereign states rather than empires, and with a secular order. Wilson's scholarship and attention to both the details and the larger picture make his the definitive history of the Thirty Years War.”―Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Among continental Europeans, the Thirty Years War is etched in memory...A definitive account has been needed, and now Peter Wilson, one of Britain's leading historians of Germany, has provided it. The Thirty Years War: Europe's Tragedy is a history of prodigious erudition that manages to corral the byzantine complexity of the Thirty Years War into a coherent narrative. It also offers a bracingly novel interpretation. Historians typically portray the Thirty Years War as the last and goriest of Europe's religious wars--a final bonfire of the zealots before the cooler age of enlightened statecraft. Mr. Wilson severely qualifies this conventional wisdom. It turns out that the quintessential war of religion was scarcely one at all...Wilson's masterful account of the Thirty Years War is a reminder that war, and peace, are almost never the offspring of conviction alone.”―Jeffrey Collins, Wall Street Journal

“Only in retrospect did the strife acquire coherence as the Thirty Years' War, and Wilson incisively cuts through its several phases to recount the objectives and options of the warring parties...Confidently argued, clearly written, Wilson's history is superb coverage of this pivotal period in European history.”―Gilbert Taylor, Booklist

“Peter Wilson's book is a major work, the first new history of the Thirty Years' War in a generation. It is a fascinating, brilliantly written attempt to explain a compelling series of events, which tore the heart out of Europe.”―The Times

“[It] succeeds brilliantly. It is huge both in its scene-setting and its unfolding narrative detail...It is to Wilson's credit that he can both offer the reader a detailed account of this terrible and complicated war and step back to give due summaries. His scholarship seems to me remarkable, his prose light and lovely, his judgments fair. This is a heavyweight book, no doubt. Sometimes, though, the very best of them have to be.”―Paul Kennedy, Sunday Times

“Wilson's monumental study captures both the complexities of the political and military transformations and the level of brutality that the endemic struggles unleashed...This will be the defining study of the Thirty Years War for the next generation.”―P. G. Wallace, Choice

About the Author

Peter H. Wilson is the author of Heart of Europe: A History of the Holy Roman Empire, an Economist and Sunday Times Best Book, and The Thirty Years War: Europe’s Tragedy, winner of the Distinguished Book Award from the Society of Military History. He has appeared on BBC Radio and has written for Prospect, the Los Angeles Times, and the Financial Times. President of the Society for the History of War and a fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Wilson is Chichele Professor of the History of War at the University of Oxford. His work has been translated into Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, and Spanish.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press; Reprint edition (October 15, 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 1024 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0674062310
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0674062313
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 2.25 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #45,245 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #261 in European History (Books)
- #800 in Military History (Books)
- #879 in World History (Books)

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EJR

You do not need a Masters in History to enjoy this book!!!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 27, 2023

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I am about 200 pages into this book and felt compelled to write a review after seeing how many reviews complain about there being too much information in the book and saying things like “don’t read if you aren’t an expert in European history. This is just untrue. Yes there is a lot of information in this book but if you are passionate or interested in history and have an attention span longer than a Tik Tok video you will be fine. And you do not need to be an expert in European history to enjoy this book. Are you going to have to look some things up occasionally? Yes. But if you’re not trying to learn something why are you reading non fiction in the first place? People complaining about this book are most likely people that do not read much and have trouble keeping track of a 1 hour episode of any show on television. If you take the time to read this book and while you’re reading it google a couple of words or events or people then you will love this book. It is an amazing book and a truly monumental work of scholarship. Anyone interested in History should read this book. That is all I have to say thank you for listening.

7 people found this helpful

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30 Weeks for 30 years

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 26, 2021

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Peter Wilson has done us all a great service writing a comprehensive overview of a very complicated subject. He is fair and even-handed when dealing with the different characters. Neither side is demonized. But the issues are investigated and reported thoroughly. He even spends a lot of time dealing with the counter-reformation and other events leading up to the famed defenestration of Prague, typically marking the beginning of the thirty years war.
The footnotes are extensive! I like that. I like being able to research further separate events in further detail.
The maps are great and easy to follow, individual battle diagrams are very nice to follow.
I also like his occasional reviews of literature surrounding this war, both contemporary and later, his analysis of historical scholarship, its pitfalls, and strengths.
It's not a book that a person can read fast. At least I could not. My schedule was 1 week per year of the war. Still, when finished, I feel I have a greater understanding of European history and politics. It needs to be said that this war still dictates many of our own biases about religion, politics, and the futility of war.
It is a historical event that deserves more attention, more understanding. Peter Wilson does a great job of explaining the intrigue, the effects, the personalities, and the people of this war.

8 people found this helpful

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David

Very informative

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 9, 2022

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The book was very informative

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Teemacs

One-third of a review...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 30, 2017

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…because I’ve only read one-third of the book. At my second attempt to read the book (I collapsed with exhaustion at my first attempt), I’ve progressed to p.300, and the action has just started (the first part of the book describes in vast detail the world that gave rise to the Thirty Years’ War). Professor Wilson is clearly a gentleman of outstanding knowledge and erudition. One marvels that one person can know sooooo much stuff. He also writes well.

However, the problem is that he tells it all. It has been said that the secret of being a bore is to tell everything, in detail. Prof. Wilson certainly isn’t a bore, but the sheer, unremitting deluge of facts, names, places, treaties, etc. is bewildering. Names pop up and one struggles to remember who they were and what they did (or didn’t) and on whose side of the argument they were. I found myself having to scurry back to the index and read about them all over again. Unless you are blessed with a vast memory, you really need to take notes. And then there are the times when something pops up with no previous occurrence. For example, on p.17, there is the Golden Bull. One (this one anyway) immediately thinks, "The, er, what?" No explanation. Not, apparently, Aaron’s golden calf that survived to adulthood, but some sort of agreement.

The problem is that, with so much detail, you find yourself trying to skim the thing without going anywhere near the depths that you feel will suck you under, never again to be seen. Which is a pity because this is indeed a worthy tome. It’s just too detailed for the ordinary everyday reader. I like history a lot, and was looking forward to this, the first comprehensive account in English, I believe, since C.V. Wedgwood’s pre-WW2 account. As. Prof. Wilson says, her views might well have been tainted by the darkening shadow of coming war on the Continent, but it was certainly a much easier read.

“The Thirty Years’ War was an extremely complex event” says Prof. Wilson in his introduction; whether this is a semi-conscious justification for what is to follow I cannot say. Perhaps, given the complexity of the subject and the desire not to end up with something the size of Britannica, the book has to be this way.Nevertheless, general readers, be warned; without considerable previous knowledge of 16-17th century Europe and/or prodigious memories, you will struggle. This book is a wee bit like eating your greens, full of good nourishment, but not necessarily particularly palatable.

11 people found this helpful

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J. P Spencer

Too detailed for the general reader

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 26, 2019

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Rating academic histories is always hard as it seems a little unfair to judge a book like Wilson's by what I think of it as literature. In the case of the Thirty Years War, there is no question that Wilson has done his research and assembled what will be considered THE stand out overview of the war for a long time to come. But as literature for the general reader it sadly fails.

Thoroughly covering the entire war, it feels like it takes 30 years to read. Small meaningless battle after small meaningless battle are described as are the interminable movements of the armies involved as well as their leaders. There is so much detail that the war itself gets lost. In this, it is not helped by the poor maps at least in this edition. There is one good map showing central Europe from France to Hungary and Denmark to Italy but this is not large enough or detailed enough to keep track of where the armies are operating. Other than this one map, all we are given are a couple of dozen very poor maps of the individual battles which in most cases don't provide enough info to even place the battle on the overview map. I simply lost track of who was fighting who, who led whose army, or where those armies were located.

For those REALLY interested in the Thirty Years War, this is probably an essential read. For everyone else, I recommend C.V. Edgewood's book despite it's being getting on a hundred years old.

27 people found this helpful

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Theodore

Serious academic work on 30 Years War

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 4, 2021

Verified Purchase

Main complaint:- lack of maps of of Holy Roman Empire. Maps would highlight where all the myriad battles took place, and cities/provinces in relation to modern EU. Wilson seems fixated on numbers of combatants in each encounter between opposing armies, but how accurate are the figures? There is not much information about the horrors suffered by the civilian population throughout the period, or about the mercenaries fighting on both sides (Scots, Irish and presumably English). However a magisterial piece of historical writing about a civil war that still has bearing on modern day Europe.

One person found this helpful

J. Hofmann

Well-written an ld thoroughly researched

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 12, 2020

Verified Purchase

A well-written and thorough history of one of Europe's darkest periods (there is some competition for that title). Essential for anyone force-fed a grim diet of Nazi history by the national curriculum.

3 people found this helpful

customer

An excellent comprehensive overview of complex subject

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 21, 2015

Verified Purchase

An excellent comprehensive overview of complex subject. Superb coverage of political, economic and military aspects of the war, just what I was hoping it would be!

5 people found this helpful

Anthony W Delves

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 17, 2015

Verified Purchase

Great book, well set out and well written. Possibly the best book available on the subject.

4 people found this helpful

Dr Christopher John Terry

A very detailed and circumspect t study that add as a both knowledge and p err rspective

Reviewed in Germany 🇩🇪 on February 27, 2018

Verified Purchase

One the best history books in recent times
.an excellent reference book as well as rewarding reading.innovative, detailed, instructive. First class

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