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Iron and Blood
- A Military History of the German-Speaking Peoples Since 1500
- Narrated by: Rory Alexander
- Length: 34 hrs and 55 mins
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Iron and Blood
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Summary
Brought to you by Penguin.
For most of its existence, German-speaking Europe has been splintered into innumerable states—some substantial (such as Austria and Prussia) and some consisting of just a few Alpine meadows. Its military experience has also been extraordinarily varied: threatened and threatening; a mere buffer-zone, and a global threat.
Iron and Blood is a startlingly ambitious and absorbing book. It encompasses five centuries of political, military, technological and economic change to tell the story of the German-speaking lands, from the Rhine to the Balkan frontier, from Switzerland to the North Sea. Wilson's narrative considers everything from weapons development to recruitment to battlefield strategy. Germans' military impact on the rest of Europe has been immense. If there is one constant it has been the sense of being beset by seemingly more powerful enemies—France or Russia or Turkey—and the need to strike a rapid knockout blow to ensure a favourable result. Almost inevitably, this has in practice meant protracted, relentless and often unwinnable wars, and—in 1939-1945—moral catastrophe.
The author of definitive books on the Holy Roman Empire and the Thirty Years War, Peter Wilson has with Iron and Blood written his masterpiece.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Janine Busbridge
- 17-06-24
Fascinating!
This is the first grand-scale work on German military history I have read. it paints a compelling picture.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Gen78956
- 07-11-22
Interesting and detailed
An interesting and very detailed history, beautifully read. Nice and long to get your teeth into!!
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- David_Cockayne
- 23-04-23
Outstanding
This is an outstanding work of history which chsllenges many of the myths about Germany and its warmaking.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- Amazon Customer
- 27-10-23
Great overview
Great overview of German history and associated militarism. The final few chapters were weaker, I feel and could have been fleshed out. Narration was very good.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 07-08-24
higly detailed, very ambitious
An ambitious overview of the development of seperate militaries over a long period, which sometimes suffers a bit for its scope.
If you are looking for an overview of the various major wars fought in and by Germany this isn't really it for the conflicts often only get a quick rundown and only uses them to help explain military developments.
If you are already familiar with these wars and are interested in the development of german peoples military organisational and technological development then you're in the right place.
Well read, good pacing. My only gripe is that the reader struggles with the pronunciation of German words, of which there are obviously quite many.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Kieran Andrew Mcgill
- 23-11-22
History as a list.
No great amount of detail- a chronological list of events. Austerlitz bizarrely gets one line. A good reference work perhaps.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 19-12-23
Dreadful
I have loved history and particularly military history since I was a schoolboy, however this book is enough to put anyone off the subject. The most disjointed history book it’s ever been my misfortune to encounter. How the author manages to make this so intensely boring is beyond me, it’s also not helped by the awful narrator. Avoid.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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- K A Johnston
- 04-05-23
Utterly boring
Wilson simply cannot tell a story. It’s just an enormous and never ending collections of facts thrown in front of you until finally you switch off.
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1 person found this helpful