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Radetzky: Imperial Victor and Military Genius by [Sked, Alan]
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Radetzky: Imperial Victor and Military Genius Kindle Edition

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Alan Sked (Author)
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Alan Sked (Author)
2.8 out of 5 stars 4 customer reviews
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Length: 296 pages Word Wise: Enabled Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
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Product details

  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 3996 KB
  • Print Length: 288 pages
  • Publisher: I.B.Tauris; 1 edition (7 Dec. 2010)
  • Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B007TV10M0
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
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  • Word Wise: Enabled
  • Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
  • Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars 4 customer reviews
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,201,341 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

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4.0 out of 5 starsAn interesting and informative biography
By Squirr-El HALL OF FAMETOP 10 REVIEWER on 30 Mar. 2012
Format: Hardcover
This is an interesting and informative biography of the famous Austrian field-marshal, but is marred by some of the author's assertions, which are not supported by any evidence. In his Introduction, he claims that "Radetsky was a greater general than Marlborough", who campaigned a century earlier, but doesn't expand on that statement. I note that he doesn't mention Prince Eugene at all, who was Marlborough's partner in victory. He also makes much of the fact that Radetsky was the chief of staff to Field Marshal Prince Schwarzenberg, claiming all the credit for his campaigns for the subject of this book. A recent book - Breakthrough: The Gorlice-Tarnow Campaign, 1915 (War, Technology, and History) - contains a section examining the `modern' view that the chief of staff in German armies was the brains behind the figurehead general, and finds that it is based on faulty premises. You would do well to look this up before accepting Mr Sked's assertions. Another recent book - War for the Every Day: Generals, Knowledge and Warfare in Early Modern Europe, 1680-1740 (Contributions in Military Studies) - examines the Austrian generals in the generation before Radetsky, and makes a number of observations on the `received wisdom' about Austrian military institutions which are factually incorrect, some of which are referred to in passing in this work. Again, that is a volume worth reading for background.Read more ›
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2.0 out of 5 starsNot Quite a Genius
By TR on 25 Mar. 2011
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
The book attempts to fill a real gap in military literature, since Radetzky is certainly an interesting and as regards accounts in English, a neglected figure. The fact that he was able to win battles like Novara, and Custoza when over 80, makes him a remarkable general, at least. However, he is surely greatly oversold by an author who starts by rating him above Marlborough, and as at least as great as Wellington and Frederic the Great, and returns to this theme with excessive frequency. Sked arrives at his view by measuring his contribution as chief staff officer in the last year of the campaign against Napoleon, as equivalent to those of commanding generals, and then takes little or no account of the quality of the forces and commanders Radetzky contended against in the Italian campaigns towards the end of his life. Obviously, the above concerns opinion, but I have other criticisms of the book. The accounts of his subject's battles are cursory in the extreme, which is odd for a book about a general; Novara, perhaps Radezky's greatest triumph hardly occupies more than a paragraph, and there is no relevant map, other than one of most of Northern Italy. The author regularly recapitulates, often without indicating that he is doing so, and although he gives a separate time-line, that is not enough to prevent confusion for the reader.
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3.0 out of 5 starson March wtih Radetzky
By M. Baerends on 1 Nov. 2012
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
The central thesis of this book is that Radetzky, almost forgotten today, was in fact one of the greatest men of the first half of the 19th century. Not only was he the mastermind behind the 1813-1814 campaign that defeated Napoleon, but he also saved Europe by quashing the 1848 rebellion in Italy and defeating the King of Sardinia's army twice, against all the odds. Had it not been for Radetzky, Napoleon might not have been beaten, and Europe would have descended into total chaos in 1848. An interesting thesis, and I think Sked did a good job in defending it. I did not enjoy the writing very much; especially the campaign descriptions quickly become tedious and difficult to follow. Having said that, the book is certainly educational so still worth a read.
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2.0 out of 5 starsMissed opportunity
By T. Burkard VINE VOICE on 22 July 2011
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
The Radetsky March, written by Johann Stauss to celebrate the eponymous general's triumph in suppressing the radical Italian revolutionaries in 1848, is a gem: but for this stirring and uplifting piece of martial music, Radetsky would be totally forgotten. As it is, hardly anyone has heard of him. And indeed, few historians pay much attention to the old Habsburg empire that dominated central Europe for centuries.

It's ironic that Alan Sked, the arch Eurosceptic historian who founded UKIP, should spend his professional life studying the Austro-Hungarian empire. It was an earlier attempt at European integration, back when we were honest enough to call supra-national entities by their true names: empires. Ever since it collapsed in 1918, the Habsburg empire has rather dropped out of the public memory.

Count Joseph Radetsky was undoubtedly one of the few competent Austrian generals, but Sked is patently absurd in claiming that he defeated Napoleon in the 1813-1814 campaign that sent the Corsican tyrant to Elba. As a junior officer, Radetsky proved a brave and resourceful leader of men, but by 1813 he had become a staff officer. Radetsky undoubtedly played a major role in shaping the strategy that overcame Napoleon, but staff officers don't actually lead armies.

Radetsky never commanded an army until he suppressed the Italian revolution of 1848 at the ripe old age of 82. His success in doing so was indeed remarkable, but Sked's account of this campaign is curiously flat.

I really wanted to like this book--two other recent books ("The White War", by Mark Thompson and "Empire" by Dominic Lieven) portray the Habsburg empire in a surprisingly sympathetic light.Read more ›
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