This is a history of the Austro-Prussian-Italian War of 1866, which paved the way for German and Italian unification. It is based upon extensive new research in the state and military archives of Austria, Germany, and Italy. Geoffrey Wawro describes Prussia's successful invasion of Habsburg Venetia, and the wretched collapse of the Austrian army in July 1866. Although the book gives a thorough accounting of both the Prussian and Italian war efforts, it is most notable for the light it sheds on the Austrians. Through painstaking archival research, Wawro reconstructs the Austrian campaign, blow-by-blow, hour-by-hour. Blending military and social history, he describes the terror and panic that overtook Austria's regiments of the line in each clash with the Prussians. He reveals the unconscionable blundering of the Austrian commandant and his chief deputies who fumbled away key strategic advantages and ultimately lost a war - crucial to the fortunes of the Habsburg Monarchy - that most European pundits had predicted they would win.
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"The Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 started the modern Hundred Years' War that did not end until 1945. Professor Geoff Wawro's book is the most comprehensive treatment of the subject. Thoughtful and well written, it is a major contribution to an understanding of history." Henry Kissinger
"The Austro-Prussian War is an outstanding work, illustrating once again that operational military history can make important and enjoyable contributions to understanding the past. A must for undergraduate, graduate, and specialist collections." Choice
"Geoffrey Wawro's lively and insightful new study offers the reader a view of the familiar events of the Königgrätz campaign from the relatively unfamiliar perspective of the AustrianFeldzeugmeisterLudwig Benedek's headquarters." German Studies Review
"Wawro's discussion of the strategic plans and dispositions of the three major belligerents and Austria's lesser allies is excellent. The simple maps aid understanding of the deployment and mofvements of widely separated forces on terrain unfamiliar to most American readers." SFC John T. Broom, Military Reviews
"Comprehensive, erudite, balanced, and clearly written, we have here the best work on this war in any language." J. Arden Bucholz, Central European History
"...offers a curious mixture of historical writing. ...Wawro presents excellent campaign history, particularly of the little-covered events in the Italian theater of operations. ...truly valuable for its narrative of events in the Italian theater." Scott W. Lackey, Historian
"This is an extraordinarily luminous book about not only a war but also a continent and a century. Written with verve and wit, The Franco-Prussian War harnesses scholarship and story-telling to wonderful effect. Geoffrey Wawro has given us a magnificent yarn." Rick Atkinson, author of An Army at Dawn and winner of the Pulitzer Prize
"As the author of a history of the Franco-Prussian War that has held the field for some forty years, I was deeply apprehensive when I learned that Dr. Wawro was at work on another. I had good cause to be. His work is magnificent. The research is both wide and deep, the operational analysis masterly, and there is not a dull page in the book. Dr. Wawro has established himself as one of the leading military historians of his generation." Sir Michael Howard
"A lively narrative history, based on an abundance of new research." MacGregor Knox, The London School of Economics
"The Austro-Prussian War is an outstanding work, illustrating once again that operational military history can make important and enjoyable contributions to understanding the past. A must for undergraduate, graduate, and specialist collections." Choice
"Geoffrey Wawro's lively and insightful new study offers the reader a view of the familiar events of the Königgrätz campaign from the relatively unfamiliar perspective of the AustrianFeldzeugmeisterLudwig Benedek's headquarters." German Studies Review
"Wawro's discussion of the strategic plans and dispositions of the three major belligerents and Austria's lesser allies is excellent. The simple maps aid understanding of the deployment and mofvements of widely separated forces on terrain unfamiliar to most American readers." SFC John T. Broom, Military Reviews
"Comprehensive, erudite, balanced, and clearly written, we have here the best work on this war in any language." J. Arden Bucholz, Central European History
"...offers a curious mixture of historical writing. ...Wawro presents excellent campaign history, particularly of the little-covered events in the Italian theater of operations. ...truly valuable for its narrative of events in the Italian theater." Scott W. Lackey, Historian
"This is an extraordinarily luminous book about not only a war but also a continent and a century. Written with verve and wit, The Franco-Prussian War harnesses scholarship and story-telling to wonderful effect. Geoffrey Wawro has given us a magnificent yarn." Rick Atkinson, author of An Army at Dawn and winner of the Pulitzer Prize
"As the author of a history of the Franco-Prussian War that has held the field for some forty years, I was deeply apprehensive when I learned that Dr. Wawro was at work on another. I had good cause to be. His work is magnificent. The research is both wide and deep, the operational analysis masterly, and there is not a dull page in the book. Dr. Wawro has established himself as one of the leading military historians of his generation." Sir Michael Howard
"A lively narrative history, based on an abundance of new research." MacGregor Knox, The London School of Economics
Book Description
This is a history of the Austro-Prussian-Italian War of 1866, which paved the way for German and Italian unification. Geoffrey Wawro describes Prussia's successful invasion of Habsburg Venetia, and the wretched collapse of the Austrian army in July 1866.
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Until 1866, the whole history of modern warfare had been one of ever increasing troop numbers and ever more sophisticated fortress and weapons system. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Until 1866, the whole history of modern warfare had been one of ever increasing troop numbers and ever more sophisticated fortress and weapons system. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is based upon reseaarch into the Austrian Military Archives not previously used by authors writing in English.
Wawro explodes the myth of the Austrian General Benedek as a competent commander betrayed by unruly subordinates. He demonstrates that Benedek was a fumbling inept general who threw away chances of victory and whose staff tried to rewrite history.
Not only this but his accounts of the battles are vivid if tragic. One cannnot feel anything but sadness and horror as he describes how the white coated Austrian infantry in obsolete columns throw themselves at better armed and trained Prussians and are cut down in droves.
If you have any interest in 19th Century Warfare you must buy this book.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
By G. Henry
Format:Paperback
The title of this brief review comes from a famous cartoon published in Punch magazine (the New Yorker of 19th century London) in 1895. In it a young clergyman, when served a bad egg by his host exclaims, 'Oh no my Lord I assure you, parts of it are excellent'. So with Dr. Wawro's book, excellent in parts, but only in parts.
If a military historian wants to be taken seriously then in my opinion he cannot afford to make simple errors of scholarship on page one. To claim that Fontenoy was fought in 1743 suggests either ignorance, carelessness, poor editing, or a combination of all three. Unfortunately this isn't the only factual error to be found in the text, for example and in no particular order; the sun couldn't have glinted on the Austrian Cuirassiers body armour at Koniggratz as they had divested themselves of the breastplate in 1862; Prussian 'schrapnel' didn't burst in the Austrian ranks as the Prussians had no air burst capability in 1866; the introduction of the rifled musket did not increase the range of the infantryman to 1200m!; an Austrian field hospital at Koniggratz couldn't have been overun by 8000 Austrian Cuirassiers as there were probably no more than 5000 Cuirassiers on all parts of the field in total. And so it goes on, page after page of foolish errors and hyperbole combining to irritate the informed reader and, more seriously, to reduce his faith in the author's credibility. Add to this an unfair and almost pathological distain for the non-Germanic elements of the Austrian army* and Dr. Wawro's book begins to look decidedly thin.... Read more ›
If a military historian wants to be taken seriously then in my opinion he cannot afford to make simple errors of scholarship on page one. To claim that Fontenoy was fought in 1743 suggests either ignorance, carelessness, poor editing, or a combination of all three. Unfortunately this isn't the only factual error to be found in the text, for example and in no particular order; the sun couldn't have glinted on the Austrian Cuirassiers body armour at Koniggratz as they had divested themselves of the breastplate in 1862; Prussian 'schrapnel' didn't burst in the Austrian ranks as the Prussians had no air burst capability in 1866; the introduction of the rifled musket did not increase the range of the infantryman to 1200m!; an Austrian field hospital at Koniggratz couldn't have been overun by 8000 Austrian Cuirassiers as there were probably no more than 5000 Cuirassiers on all parts of the field in total. And so it goes on, page after page of foolish errors and hyperbole combining to irritate the informed reader and, more seriously, to reduce his faith in the author's credibility. Add to this an unfair and almost pathological distain for the non-Germanic elements of the Austrian army* and Dr. Wawro's book begins to look decidedly thin.... Read more ›
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By Enquirer
VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I have titled this review after Wawro's favourite word. It is only used of Austrian forces and means variously: 'stopped, shaken, interpenetrated, losing, disordered,running,fired upon by nasty needle guns etc'. It is NOT used to mean what everyone else thinks the word means - 'no longer embodied as a force on a permanent basis'. I can't make up my mind whether this is a deliberate use of a word to reflect Austrian archival usage - or a lack of familiarity with military terms.
This problem pervades the book. Are we being treated to unique insights drawn from in depth research of primary sources, or are we receiving the biased perceptions of an academic writing of inadequately grasped military matters? Or is it both? I suspect that to be the case. Ironically, the prose is far better than that of most miltary writers and the treatment of the development of the Battle of Konigrgratz is masterful. I was almost panting as I read, carried by the surge to and fro of the description.
Apparently the book was based on Wawro's PhD thesis. If I had repeated myself so much in mine, I would have been suspected of regarding my supervisor as a moron. Even the most limited reader will be fed up with constant harping on the failings of Benedek. Surely his actions speak for themselves? The need to ram home the most obvious points makes the reader feel quite patronised. It is not as if the English speaking reader already had an entrenched belief in the genius of Benedek. 'The Lion of Soferino' is not even much regarded in Austria today.
Finally, I would very much have liked Wawro to let us know what happened to the Austrian generals and their men after Konigratz. He only tells us what happened to the nations. It is not even made clear how the enquiry into the conduct of the war went.... Read more ›
This problem pervades the book. Are we being treated to unique insights drawn from in depth research of primary sources, or are we receiving the biased perceptions of an academic writing of inadequately grasped military matters? Or is it both? I suspect that to be the case. Ironically, the prose is far better than that of most miltary writers and the treatment of the development of the Battle of Konigrgratz is masterful. I was almost panting as I read, carried by the surge to and fro of the description.
Apparently the book was based on Wawro's PhD thesis. If I had repeated myself so much in mine, I would have been suspected of regarding my supervisor as a moron. Even the most limited reader will be fed up with constant harping on the failings of Benedek. Surely his actions speak for themselves? The need to ram home the most obvious points makes the reader feel quite patronised. It is not as if the English speaking reader already had an entrenched belief in the genius of Benedek. 'The Lion of Soferino' is not even much regarded in Austria today.
Finally, I would very much have liked Wawro to let us know what happened to the Austrian generals and their men after Konigratz. He only tells us what happened to the nations. It is not even made clear how the enquiry into the conduct of the war went.... Read more ›
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By John Bland
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book was full of the details of this neglected war, one which I wanted to learn more about.
But whilst the book was scholarly (filled with references for example) and also comprehensive, giving a full account, in chronological order, of each and all of the skirmishes and mini battles that led up to the final denouement at Konigratz (Sadow), several things seemed to be missing.
Firstly, more maps would have helped me properly understand the troop movements and the terrain.
Secondly I needed an appendix with the chain of command in the armies. I found it very hard to follow the characters and exactly who was doing what. Some have similar names for example Prince Friedrich Karl and Prince Friedrich Willhelm, whilst others seemed to change their title and position during the conflict. I kept checking -- was this the person who previously was doing such and such on page y, or not. A list of the major characters at the end, together with the particular bit of army the were commanding, and when, would have been invaluable.
But most serious of all it didn't seem to give the big picture. I was looking for the grand themes as well as the detail and they seemed either absent or simplistic. For example I was left thinking that the Germans won simply because a) they had a better gun and b) the Austrians were incompetent. Wawro seems rather dismissive of the loser.
Despite these limitations I'm not sure you'll find a better book on the topic. His other book on the Franco Prussian war is much better!
But whilst the book was scholarly (filled with references for example) and also comprehensive, giving a full account, in chronological order, of each and all of the skirmishes and mini battles that led up to the final denouement at Konigratz (Sadow), several things seemed to be missing.
Firstly, more maps would have helped me properly understand the troop movements and the terrain.
Secondly I needed an appendix with the chain of command in the armies. I found it very hard to follow the characters and exactly who was doing what. Some have similar names for example Prince Friedrich Karl and Prince Friedrich Willhelm, whilst others seemed to change their title and position during the conflict. I kept checking -- was this the person who previously was doing such and such on page y, or not. A list of the major characters at the end, together with the particular bit of army the were commanding, and when, would have been invaluable.
But most serious of all it didn't seem to give the big picture. I was looking for the grand themes as well as the detail and they seemed either absent or simplistic. For example I was left thinking that the Germans won simply because a) they had a better gun and b) the Austrians were incompetent. Wawro seems rather dismissive of the loser.
Despite these limitations I'm not sure you'll find a better book on the topic. His other book on the Franco Prussian war is much better!
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