Product Description

This is a new 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #247952 in Books
• Published on: 1997-09-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 329 pages

Review
"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

"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

Customer Reviews

An Excellent Study of a Neglected War
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.

Scholarly but Uninspiring
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!