The Thirty Years' War
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The standard text
For modern students of international relations, the Thirty Years' War is something like a great book, such as "Democracy in America" or "The Education of Henry Adams": it is often referenced and quoted but rarely examined in toto nor ever fully understood. For many years, the topic of the Thirty Years' War remained on my "to do" reading list. But it was the emerging Sunni-Shia divide in the Middle East that finally prompted me to pick up this book, hoping to get a fuller picture and appreciation of how Christians dealt with their internal doctrinal differences nearly half-a-millennium ago.
On one level, this book was a let down. I have read a number of other works by Geoffrey Parker and have come to respect and admire his ability to blend the best attributes of the Academy with the self-assured and highly readable style of the popular historian. Perhaps I should have paid greater heed to his role as editor and not author of this comprehensive history of a conflict that has become synonymous with rape, pillage, and plunder. I was expecting an eye-popping tour de force; what I got was a rather stale political-military history of the 17th century. I have no doubt that this volume is as good as it gets. I've read other introductory works and the classic by C.V. Wedgewood, and they are no more engaging than this. Whereas Parker made Philip II and the affairs of 16th century Spain come to life in "The Grand Strategy of Philip II" the major actors of the Thirty Years' War, who were ever bit as compelling as Philip, unfortunately come across as bland and uninspiring. Gustavus Adolphus, Tilly, Richeleau, Wallenstein, Oxenstierna and others remain mere names on a page rather than the larger-than-life characters they really were and their contemporaries saw them as.
Nevertheless, this overview is still the best that is available to the lay reader or undergraduate student and has many redeeming qualities, not least of which are a great number of helpful maps and graphs that make some sense of the bewildering array of states that enter and exit and re-enter the conflict over the course of decades.
Also, I was struck by the portrayal of Sweden and the role of the military revolution in the outcome of the conflict. Parker is one of the leading historians (and proponents) of the argument that tactical and doctrinal changes in land warfare during the early part of the 17th century led to a discontinuous change in the conduct of military operations and ultimately propelled the West to global imperial domination. Yet, the so-called military revolution gets little attention here and the specifically military history of the entire conflict is rather muted. A couple of things are clear, however. First, the victories of Gustavus Adolphus and the Swedish armies were, indeed, stunning. Not only had the Protestants finally found an answer to Tilly and the Catholic armies, which had been undefeated over more than a decade, but they nearly annihilated the Catholics at Breitenfield in 1631. The heavy use of musketeers in shallow ranks, supported by mobile field artillery and shock cavalry tactics were as decisive tactically as the German blitzkrieg three centuries later. Second, just as the Germans achieved breathtaking battlefield victories with their panzer units but were unable to achieve strategic victory, so too did the Swedes find that winning a battle, however decisively, is not the same as winning a war.
Parker also ascribes interesting political motives to the Swedes. He writes that both Gustavus Adolphus and Oxensteirna were driven primarily to defend Swedish control of the Baltic Sea, which was threatened in the late 1620s as Tilly and Wallenstein marched northward. The authors suggest that defending the Protestant faith in Germany, especially after the promulgation of the Edict of Restitution, played only a minor role in driving Swedish policy and actions. Moreover, as the war grinded on, the Swedes decided to pursue a policy of "Germanification" of the war, much like the US tried in Vietnam and, one can easily surmise, eventually in Iraq. That is, the Swedes grew tired of expending so much blood and treasure in a conflict that they did not see as their own and whose outcome could only be determined by Germans.
Finally, Parker and company dismiss the notion that the Thirty Years' War was the economic and demographic castrophe that it has often been portrayed as. Indeed, the war is often synonymous with apocalyptic religious conflict. Here the authors surmise that the German population fell by maybe 15% during the war, not the 50% figure often tossed about. And they argue that the barbarity that did occur was the result of widespread starvation and the fact that the country was teeming with unpaid, hungry troops, both Catholic and Protestant. So, according to the authors, it was hunger and not religious hatred that fueled whatever atrocities that did occur.
In sum, this is likely as solid and readable an overview of the war that one is likely to find, although it cannot be recommended broadly as it is a tough, dry read.
Superior Survey of a Challenging Subject
It is hard to seize as with difficulty it is to produce a sound single
volume study thirty of the war of the years. This continent width
conflagration sinks most European conditions, forced the dissolution
of many of the crucial expenditures of the era and over the
conventional time framework extended of 1618-48 outside really.
Therefore the writing of a book of the handy size requires elections,
and Geoffrey Parkers are outstanding appropriate. It concentrates on
the international political and diplomatic aspects, when including
more than enough on religion, economics, the effect of the war on
society and other "background" interests. The readers, that look here
after accounts of the military full-flowered ops, can be chagrined,
but this is not the goal of Parker (who wrote most of the text) and
its colleagues. They set perfectly sufficient data to the battles and
campaigns to the order and skillfully locate military affairs within a
completely understandable framework, which emphasizes large energy
rivalry and dogma tables conflict. The Prosa is throughout readable,
multiauthored another tidy execution in A work, and the many
illustrations and the diagrams are plus a definite. For more on actual
fight, C.V. Wedgwoods is standard "a war thirty years" still another
fine description, many less analytically than contribution Parkers. G.
Mortimer, "eye-witness accounts thirty of the war of the years" is
nuance of the older opinion adding the new gel honouring SAMNESS (with
extensive stating lines of the primary sources) that the TYW was
unmitigated accident in Germany.
Stultifyingly Dull
The thirty years warist an investigation range, which I would like to
know really more approximately. And the political interactions of most
nations of Europe are complicated form it a very large task to
explain. This book lacks. I am sure that the facts are complete and
exact, but the letter like that drying such as week old toast is. None
the personae came alive, and none of the facts were memorably formed.
I would recommend it as reference, possibly however as interesting you
did not read on the topic. It sits on my shelf, while I look for
better written work to the safety device my interest.
An excellent place to start
The thirty war of the years was a very much confusing conflict on many
levels, and each possible account of it in hardly 200 sides to try is
nearly daring. But this book follows, at least, also, represents
background and after the people and the policy. It is a good place to
begin to a study of the conflict. It is not a military history (there
is a short account of some specifically military aspects toward to the
end) still another social history, and much detail had to be omitted.
But the bases of the war are there, to be can fleshed out with the
more extensive or the specialists the work.
An excellent resource
Geoffrey Parker is excellently, as usual and makes available detailed
view and an engaging kind. Beginners to the topic could would like
also its "Europe in crisis" or "the Dutch riot" texts to advise. It is
difficult to find a good and impartial investigation into the
Catholic/Habsburg page other where. The report "with stars" is a rough
of miscarriages of justice - it goes, without saying that a book of
this kind for someone can be too complicated without experience at all
with seventeenth the century, but a history the whole its time on
describing hand stops to spend cannot. Which concerns stylistic
criticism, it is difficult to find history so good how Parkers, which
are written in addition, improve let alone. Even if Parker is
"complex," "boring" or "with difficulty," it is probable that the
topic is not simply from the interest to you, all the same who it
writes. 50 side chapter in a text book is only an insignificant gloss.
Good, But Not In Isolation
Geoffrey Parker is quite simply one of the most thoughtful and talented military historians out there. His works are always profound and thought-provoking. However, in this instance, he may have bitten off more than he can chew. The ugly fact is that the Thirty Years' War is a conflict of incredible complexity. No one book can capture all elements of this war. It is quite simply the historian's Gordian Knot, and even Parker cannot do it all in one book.
The bottom line? If you are a military historian, this is a very good book. However, Parker's own "The Military Revolution" and Dodge's classic biography of Gustavus Adolphus (really a history of European military tactics from 1600-1712) do the job better, especially as compliments to one another. For a political history, Ronald Asch does a better job in his history of the Thirty Years' War from the Hapsburg perspective(especially when combined with the Dodge book on Gustavus). In contrast, Parker's political history gets buried beneath too much detail (thereby running the risk of missing the forest for the trees).
Folks, don't let the complexity of the Thirty Years' War scare you. It is a fascinating conflict, one that is essential to understanding European history, military evolution and the emergence of the modern state. If you've got the stomach to read two or more books on the subject, you will be richly rewarded. Taken in conjunction with other works, Parker's book can add enormously to one's understanding of a seminal event in world history.
The reason many people dislike history
I picked up this book with a great deal of enthusiasm. I wasn't too familiar with the personalities and issues surrounding the conflict and it was one of the few books on the subject I could find in english. The author did his best to drain anything of interest from his book. Mr. Parker spends almost no time or effort explaining the major players or their motives resulting in a confusing jumble of names and places that are difficult to distinguish from each other. Analysis is sparse and desperately needed. In frustration I consulted a 50 year old Cambridge Modern History and the 52 page essay on the Thirty Year War gave me more information and analysis (in a much better style) than the entire book by Parker. Leave this one alone!
An Invaluable Overview without Simplification
Geoffrey Parker can have a Epitaphen: briefly. A quantity of
information is war-packed into this drawn up history of the 30 years.
The reader can believe that he or they do not receive the full
treatment, but everything there it is. From the important note and
from the contribution is the exposure of the many facets of the cause
and the continuation of the war; Religion played a key role, but the
war gave to the national identities this any used up konfessionelle
policy to birth. A quantity of attention is given on to the
Oberflaechen"vernunftwidrigen" behavior by the generals and by the
ruling powers, and this is the first place, which I saw an objective
perspective from both sides during the first decade of the decision.
This forms a large case study for analyzing the great and military
strategy. Tactics and enterprises are not ignored, but rather they
represent into their correct place. It was plot and financial systems,
which determined the result, not crucial battles or the campaigns.
There is a singular aberation. The section, which is permitted "total
war", does not give much on whole in the modern direction that we
think of total war. The last section explains particularly there, how
France could not undertake everything else as small war to the 1640s.
Despite this the reader receives the direction of the applicable range
of the conflict: from the Iberi peninsula to fray the petrol one
realm; of the south of the alps to the north ranges of Sweden. The war
was not fair a German affair, nor it resulted in a straight German
solution.
Good Introduction to Complex Topic
This book is a short introduction to the thirty years was. It is
written mainly by Geoffrey Parker, although it drew in expert
colleague, in order to support on some chapters. Parker is a careful
publisher, since the book has a constant kind and like an individual
author text reads. I assume that its target audience is advanced
Nichtgraduierte and the graduate class participants and scholarly, who
look for an entry on other ranges into the extensive literature on the
thirty years specialize was. It is not a complete and detailed telling
history. Military history trailer are disappointed in particular,
because there is little covering of campaigns and of battles. It
gives, however was a nice chapter, which analyzes the nature of the
war guidance during the thirty years. The book is dedicated primarly
to political history, diplomatic history, and the structural effects
of the thirty years was on the European condition system and the
organization of the individual conditions. These topics are very well
addressed. Is from the certain interest to the authors the question
of, why the thirty years lasted war so long. Wars were in early modern
Europe both before and afterwards this conflict however normally
general from the shorter duration very. To who (s) seem to be a
combination of factors including changes in the military technology,
the organizational Unreife of the conditions the crucial victory,
which religous measure of the war and dislike of the key actors
excluded, in order to compare itself. Frequently represented, how a
senseless and exhaustive conflict, which produced thirty years
war-durable effects; e.g. the Austrian Hapsburgs would never try again
to up-succumb to hegemony Germany. In the exchange however, in its
grasp on the heartlands of Austria, of Boehmen and of Hungary
tightened. The alliance between the Austrian and Spanish Hapsburgs was
separated and France emerged as the outstanding continental European
energy. An aspect that a slight author the international is, indeed
aspects of intercontinental of the thirty years was. In the
representation the fact is implicit that cases on whole earth, as
conflict between the dutchmen and the Spanish/Portugese were in South
America and petrol-one-Persian rivalries in the Near East a very large
effect on the thirty years had. A very attractive characteristic is an
excellent marked bibliography, which is written by professor Parker,
who takes the interested readers, that are deeper into the literature.
This book fulfilled its goal of the Seins a short introduction, but
there is still another necessity at a substantial telling history,
which is based on modern gel honouring SAMNESS.
Skip This One
There are few books in English on one of the most important,
kompliziertsten and fascinating episodes in European history for the
Renaissance. Most on list Amazon are special job or from pressure.
Unfortunately Parker produced and its author a dry, blunt, lengthy
Tome, which bores even serious enthusiasts 30YW. Beginner, order for
special Wedgwood instead of if; Enthusiasts wish S.R. Gardiner read.
This is an exallent book on The Thirty Years War.
This book is an exallent book on The Thirty Years War. It begins its narative in 1608 to show some of the background of the War. The Thirty Years War was an very complex war; Mr. Parker tries to examine the War from all of the sides invovled. He doesn't take any side. The two drawbacks of the book are that it is written by a number of different authors and is a bit choppy because of this. The other drawback is that it is quite terse. Each major incedent is described in in a brief and acurate way. In order to understand the book, one has to either read it very carefully or read the book a number of times. While the main focus of the book is the political incedents, there is an appendix which discusses the major military changes that occured in the War.
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