Product Description

 This book provides an accessible study of the neglected but highly important series of wars fought for control of the Baltic and Northeastern Europe during the period 1558-1721. It is the first comprehensive history which considers the revolution in military strategy which took place in the battlefields of Eastern Europe. Robert Frost examines the impact of war on the very different social and political systems of Sweden, Denmark, Poland-Lithuania and Russia and he explains why it was Russia that emerged victorious from these wars. Based on extensive primary and secondary research (including much material that is unfamiliar in English) this book makes an important contribution to the debate on military change and political development in early modern Europe.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #70029 in Books
• Published on: 2000-08-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Review

Winner of the Early Slavic Studies Association (ESSA) 2005 Distinguished Scholarship Award

"a rare and remarkable synthetic historical work"

Professor C. M. Vakareliyska, ESSA

"This important book throws light on some very dark places in European history"

Times Literary Supplement 

"a powerfully-argued contribution to the historiography on the evolution of the military state...truly sets an impressive standard"

Slavonic & East European Review 

"Another volume in a truly splendid series -Modern Wars in perspective- whose serious format and price are pitched at history students but should not put off the intelligent general reader."

BBC History 

"a magnificent achievement, learned, perspicacious and judicious...an outstanding contribution"

War in History 

"It is an eminently readable, remarkably well-crafted, balanced, and above all else, a most provocative analysis of one of the central processes in the formation of modern Europe"

J.T. Koitlaine, Harvard University

From the Back Cover
The Northern Wars examines a period of critical importance for the history of eastern and northern Europe. It provides an accessible analysis of the neglected but highly important series of wars fought between 1558 and 1721 for control of the Baltic and for hegemony in northeastern Europe. At the beginning of the period Sweden and Poland were the dominant powers of northern Europe, by the end they were both in eclipse and Russia and Prussia were the new international superpowers, dominating the stage.
This book argues that the conditions and demands of war in northeastern Europe were different to those of western Europe, and challenges the common assumption that warfare in eastern Europe was resistant to change.
Thoroughly comparative, it examines the impact of the war on the very different social and political systems of Sweden, Denmark, Poland-Lithuania and Russia and explains why Russia emerged victorious from the wars. It also questions the traditional accounts of important figures such as Peter the Great and Gustav Adolf.
The Northern Wars is based on extensive primary and secondary material in several languages, containing much material that is unfamiliar in English. It is an important contribution to the debate on the relationship between military change and political development in early modern Europe and will be of use to all students of the period.

Customer Reviews

Stay Frosty
Excellent piece of sustained analysis of over 150 years of warfare along the Borderlands which also manages to give one a flavour of the thing. This period saw the rise of Sweden, something often linked with some perceived organisational advantages in the army of Gustav Adolph. Frost demonstrates why this was not so and the reason why Polish cavalry armies were sometimes the best solution.

The subject is replete with names of rulers, battles and sieges but I found it admirably clear in getting to the underlying reasons of such events as the Time of Troubles and the Deluge. And of course there is the Gothick Meteor himself, Karl XII. Would that other histories were as clear and yet as good at giving you the sense of the atmosphere: the forest covered borders, the husariya charging home, the long sieges of the Baltic towns. Great stuff.

Impossibly dull
A great, fascinating, exciting subject made mind-numbingly dull by endless facts, figures, percentages, blah blah blah. This book is as dull and as dry as the historic records from which it stems. Much academic work has clearly gone into it, but it's a lousy read, entirely bereft of verve or excitement or any kind of panache.
Reading this has been a gruelling experience, not one I ever intend to repeat.