- Hardcover: 1024 pages
- Publisher: Allen Lane; First Edition edition (30 July 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0713995920
- ISBN-13: 978-0713995923
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.4 x 6.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 196,898 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Europe's Tragedy: A New History of the Thirty Years War
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Product Description
Review
Succeeds brilliantly ... His scholarship is remarkable, his prose light and lovely, his judgements fair (Paul Kennedy Sunday Times )
An ambitious and accomplished account, abreast of modern scholarship, has been overdue, and EUROPE'S TRAGEDY supplies it all admirably (Blair Worden Literary Review )
Magisterial ... a wise, wide-seeking account, tenaciously researched (Lauro Martines The Times Literary Supplement )
A history of prodicious erudition ... a definitive account has been needed, and now Peter Wilson has provided it (Jeffrey Collins Wall Street Journal )
A wonderfully comprehensive and detailed account (Tim Blanning Sunday Telegraph )
An ambitious and accomplished account, abreast of modern scholarship, has been overdue, and EUROPE'S TRAGEDY supplies it all admirably (Blair Worden Literary Review )
Magisterial ... a wise, wide-seeking account, tenaciously researched (Lauro Martines The Times Literary Supplement )
A history of prodicious erudition ... a definitive account has been needed, and now Peter Wilson has provided it (Jeffrey Collins Wall Street Journal )
A wonderfully comprehensive and detailed account (Tim Blanning Sunday Telegraph )
Product Description
The horrific series of conflicts known as the Thirty Years War (1618-48) tore the heart out of Europe, killing perhaps a quarter of all Germans and laying waste to whole areas of Central Europe to such a degree that many towns and regions never recovered. All the major European powers apart from Russia were heavily involved and, while each country started out with rational war aims, the fighting rapidly spiralled out of control, with great battles giving way to marauding bands of starving soldiers spreading plague and murder. The war was both a religious and a political one and it was this tangle of motives that made it impossible to stop. Whether motivated by idealism or cynicism, everyone drawn into the conflict was destroyed by it. At its end a recognizably modern Europe had been created but at a terrible price.
Peter Wilson's book is a major work, the first new history of the war in a generation, and a fascinating, brilliantly written attempt to explain a compelling series of events. Wilson's great strength is in allowing the reader to understand the tragedy of mixed motives that allowed rulers to gamble their countries' future with such horrifying results. The principal actors in the drama (Wallenstein, Ferdinand II, Gustavus Adolphus, Richelieu) are all here, but so is the experience of the ordinary soldiers and civilians, desperately trying to stay alive under impossible circumstances.
The extraordinary narrative of the war haunted Europe's leaders into the twentieth century (comparisons with 1939-45 were entirely appropriate) and modern Europe cannot be understood without reference to this dreadful conflict.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
96 of 98 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
When I saw this book for sale I was afraid that it would be another REALLY long, dry history book written by somebody who doesn't know how to cut things out. Fortunately I was wrong. This book is pretty much the definitive history of the Thirty Years War. At 851 pages of text it is certainly a long book, but given the complexity of the source material I don't see how it could be otherwise. It has to make up for years with little printed research (At least in English) as well as include all the recent papers printed in other languages. As he points out in the introduction, any comprehensive book on the Thirty Years War requires knowledge of at least 14 different languages. For some reason the English speaking countries don't have much interest in the Thirty Years War. There is a very short list of books that cover it.
A lot has changed since the greatest previous book on the war came out in 1938. There has been a copious amount of new research that just wasn't available then. Also, having been written after World War I the perspective is rather different. In some ways that helped of course, since both wars were so tragically pointless. This book is rather different from that one. While Wedgwood's book relied almost entirely on the chroniclers of the time, this book includes a better look at the war's causes. In fact, the war itself doesn't start until page 269. Wedgwood's book kind of reminded me of Gibbons, at least in the way she arranges her information quite clearly to add force to her thesis. Basically her thesis is that the war was a stupid waste that was caused by stupidity and greed for power. Even though I think her thesis works better that Gibbons', it still left a lot out that wasn't essential to her main point. In her defense, it was a relatively brief book at 536 pages (including bibliography). That's about half the size of this one. This book includes everything. I'm sure that even at this length it left many things but it feels complete.
I really appreciate the layout of this book. The chapters are long but they are divided into subsections every few pages which makes it easier to find a point to put it down. That's something that I wish more books would do. The divisions aren't forced either, so if you're on a boring topic a new one will come along shortly. The battles have pretty clear maps which show the layout of the opposing armies. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and in this case they're right. Even though the battle descriptions are fairly brief, I feel that I understand them better than I did reading Wedgwood's book. There are also full-color pictures of all the major players in the war and several of the more important events. If you have any interest in this war I would strongly recommend this book. It might be a difficult read because of it's length, but it's worth the trouble.
A lot has changed since the greatest previous book on the war came out in 1938. There has been a copious amount of new research that just wasn't available then. Also, having been written after World War I the perspective is rather different. In some ways that helped of course, since both wars were so tragically pointless. This book is rather different from that one. While Wedgwood's book relied almost entirely on the chroniclers of the time, this book includes a better look at the war's causes. In fact, the war itself doesn't start until page 269. Wedgwood's book kind of reminded me of Gibbons, at least in the way she arranges her information quite clearly to add force to her thesis. Basically her thesis is that the war was a stupid waste that was caused by stupidity and greed for power. Even though I think her thesis works better that Gibbons', it still left a lot out that wasn't essential to her main point. In her defense, it was a relatively brief book at 536 pages (including bibliography). That's about half the size of this one. This book includes everything. I'm sure that even at this length it left many things but it feels complete.
I really appreciate the layout of this book. The chapters are long but they are divided into subsections every few pages which makes it easier to find a point to put it down. That's something that I wish more books would do. The divisions aren't forced either, so if you're on a boring topic a new one will come along shortly. The battles have pretty clear maps which show the layout of the opposing armies. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and in this case they're right. Even though the battle descriptions are fairly brief, I feel that I understand them better than I did reading Wedgwood's book. There are also full-color pictures of all the major players in the war and several of the more important events. If you have any interest in this war I would strongly recommend this book. It might be a difficult read because of it's length, but it's worth the trouble.
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
By the time the reader has got to the end of this book there is no excuse for not having a good working knowledge of the Thirty Years War. It follows the movement of all the armies throughout the period as well as sieges, battles , diplomatic moves and the precarious finances off the participants. There are 25 battlefeild maps which I found; unlike some of the other reviewers; very useful but you have to view them within a fremework of a larger atlas or Google Earth. With so much information the book would be an impossibility were it not so well writen and presented, nice easy sub chapters alows the reader to break off and easily regain the thread. I had previosly enjoyed Veronica Weedgwood's book on the subject and the two are complementary as Peter Wilson covers two to three times the material and is a good follow on.
It is maybe difficult to seek out any section that could be eliminated though some of the conclusions might have been condenced to make way for a few lines each on the current day condition of the battlefeilds and also an appendix giving a short biography of the main charachters.
It is maybe difficult to seek out any section that could be eliminated though some of the conclusions might have been condenced to make way for a few lines each on the current day condition of the battlefeilds and also an appendix giving a short biography of the main charachters.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book is a narrative analysis of the Thirty Years War. Its structure provides a background to every participating state eg Spain, France and the German Empire etc and then provides the reader with a highly detailed account of events during the first half of the 17th century.
Only CV Wedgewood has previously provided English readers with such a full account. All other modern authors except perhaps Polisensky have bit pieced the subject including Parker's edited book. Parker thought impossible what Wilson has accomplished, ie providing a full account of the war and its background.
This will be a standard work for students to dip into to understand people and events. It has the best index on the subject amounting to 70 pages with plenty of subject headings like tax etc.
Wilson does what even Wedgewood missed - a battle by battle account with a map for every one which is missing in almost every other academic book. In fact I've not read about some of these battles before.
Only CV Wedgewood has previously provided English readers with such a full account. All other modern authors except perhaps Polisensky have bit pieced the subject including Parker's edited book. Parker thought impossible what Wilson has accomplished, ie providing a full account of the war and its background.
This will be a standard work for students to dip into to understand people and events. It has the best index on the subject amounting to 70 pages with plenty of subject headings like tax etc.
Wilson does what even Wedgewood missed - a battle by battle account with a map for every one which is missing in almost every other academic book. In fact I've not read about some of these battles before.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Exhausting
Weighty historical tomes are generally my thing. I read Wedgewood on the Thirty Years War many years ago and was greatly looking forward to this. Read more
Published 29 days ago by Philadelphus
A Detailed History of a Complex War
The Thirty Years War had such a wide geographical and temporal spread, involved so many actors, had multifarious causes and incorporated both local and parallel conflicts that... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Woolgatherer
comprehensive but not an easy read
Let me start off by saying that I think Peter Wilson did a great job in writing this book. In fact 'comprehensive' does not even begin to do justice to this epic work. Read more
Published 7 months ago by M. Baerends
mammoth work of scholarship on one of Europe's great catastrophes
This book has occupied my free time for 6 weeks, solid. It is extremely dense, beautifully written, and succeeds in tying together the various strands of a war tragedy more complex... Read more
Published 9 months ago by rob crawford
Comprehensive
As a comprehensive single volume history of the Thirty years War, this does a good job.
It is certainly comprehensive and most of the author's judgements seem sound. Read more
It is certainly comprehensive and most of the author's judgements seem sound. Read more
Published 9 months ago by The Emperor
Europe's Tragedy - Missed Opportunity?
The book, written by Professor Wilson, claims fairly to be the most comprehensive history of the Thirty Years War in English, and there can be no doubt that the detail of the... Read more
Published 17 months ago by TR
What a bore..........
An important event in Europe's history that has had little written about it recently. A new comprehensive account could, therefore, fill in a gap. But, oh dear, what a bore! Read more
Published 19 months ago by T. MELLON
A Very Good and Detailed Account of One of the Defining Events in...
Europe's Tragedy by Peter H. Wilson is a very good book about the major conflict in mid seventeenth century Europe. It is well-written, informative and very detailed. Read more
Published 19 months ago by HBH
Complete, but dry
Peter Wilson certainly tackles his subject with exceptional focus, never shirking from reeling off names and places as the action of the TYW stretches across tracts of the Holy... Read more
Published 20 months ago by S P Surpless
For academics only!!!
This may be a brilliantly incisive and all-encompassing history of the Thirty Years War but it was far too dry for my vulgar tastes! Read more
Published 21 months ago by Michael Burns
Listmania!
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