Product Description

More than three and a half centuries have passed since the Peace of Westphalia ended the Thirty Years' War (1618-48); but this most devastating of wars in the early modern period continues to capture the imagination of readers: this book reveals why. It was one of the first wars where contemporaries stressed the importance of atrocities, the horrors of the fighting and also the sufferings of the civilian population. The Thirty Years' War remains a conflict of key importance in the history of the development of warfare and the 'military revolution'.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #283282 in Books
• Published on: 2002-08-19
• Released on: 2002-08-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 96 pages

From the Publisher
This unique series studies every major war in history looking at all the aspects of war, from how it felt to be a soldier to the lasting impact of the conflict on the world around it.

About the Author
The Revd Professor Richard Bonney is Professor of Modern History and Head of the Department of History at the University of Leicester, UK.

Customer Reviews

An Excellent Summary of a Neglected Conflict
Now that Osprey's Essential Histories series has covered most of the low-hanging fruit - like more needless summaries of the American Civil War - it is starting to actually use this series as it should: to cover those conflicts in military history that do not receive their fair share of attention. Richard Bonney's volume on the Thirty Years War is well-written, accurate, insightful and fairly detailed for such a short volume. Readers looking for a good short history of this critical conflict in early modern European History should definitely purchase this volume.

The volume begins with a short introduction, chronology a section on the background to the war and alliances. Bonney succeeds in disputing the over-simplified view of the war as a simply religious conflict between Catholics and Protestants. Instead, Bonney presents a vastly more complicated milieu of contentious issues and factions, with religion being only one albeit large factor. For example, Catholic (more or less) France was more concerned with limiting the power of Austria's Catholic Hapsburg's than with the minor power plays of various German Protestant small-fry duchies. The author's discussion of the Catholic Imperialist alliance with Lutheran Saxony and the Protestant Hungarian alliance with the Ottomans provide ample evidence of the diversity of issues and tangled allegiances involved in the conflict. Although this introductory material is interesting, it does tend to sidestep around some of the religious and economic motivations that kept the war going; the author mentions the refusal of the Lutherans to work with the Calvinists against the Catholic Empire, but fails to mention why these objections were so deep-seated.

The author spends 17 pages in the section "the warring sides," discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the Holy Roman Empire (Spanish gold, lots of combat veterans and good commanders), the German Protestants (poor quality troops and leaders), the Swedes (excellent artillery, cavalry and Gustavus Adolphus), the French (who were too distracted by their war with the Spanish to make a major effort in Germany), the Dutch and the Spanish. This section is far more detailed than similar sections in other Osprey Essential History volumes. The only deficiency in this area - and it runs throughout the volume - is a failure to provide any references on 17th Century currency. Several times, the author details cash subsidies by the Dutch, Spanish, British in terms of thalers, guilders and florins. Without any kind of reference about currency, it is difficult to evaluate the relative economic contributions of the various powers.

The actual narrative of the conflict is 29 pages long - a bit short - but quite good. There are seven 2-D maps that support the text (the Rhine fortresses in southwest Germany, the first Battle of Breitenfeld, the battles of Lutzen, Nordligen, Wittstock, 2nd Breitenfeld, and Jankow). Unfortunately the greatest weaknesses in an otherwise fine volume is the lack of any strategic maps of Germany that depict pre or post-war boundaries and many of the peripheral areas. The reader will find it difficult to follow the campaign narrative in places like Swedish Pommerania, the Baltic Coast and Bavaria, which have no supporting maps.

The final sections of the volume cover a look at typical mercenaries, civilian witnesses, the war in context and the conclusion of the war. As usual, these sections are a bit weak and Osprey should re-think what it is asking authors to accomplish in these concluding sections. Nevertheless, author Richard Bonney succeeds in delivering an excellent summary of the war that shaped pre-modern central Europe.

Does little to make sense of a confusing war
I enjoy the Osprey Essential Histories and up until this one, I believe they were all well put together for the layman to understand. However, in this particular issue, the author does little to clear up background to the war as well as the major participants in the conflicts. Instead he leaves us with lists of major leaders and generals in which one would already have to have an in depth understanding of this era to recognize and understand. I have to say that this is perhaps the most confusing war I have ever read in terms of the various states and sub factions involved. I was hoping Osprey would be able to clear it up, but unfortunately it did not. Though still well written, it did little too help my understanding of this major political and religious struggle.

Just scratches the surface.
"Simply not enough information." It is a common complaint for readers of the Essential Histories series that can certainly be blamed on the strict restrictions on space, but in this case especially, the statement is valid. This book gives you the bare-bones of the conflict, with very little in the way of causes for and the lead up to the war. Brief, but interesting, discussions of the most important battles, the effects on the local populace, and regional negotiations are included, but the overall result is simply incomplete. The Thirty Years' War is an incredibly complex conflict involving overwhelming numbers of players. Alliances shift, break, and reform; leaders and generals change allegiances, and the tides of war turn again and again. It is, therefore, unrealistic to expect a <100 page book to give you the kind of in depth understanding you would need to truly know and understand this war. That is not the reason I am giving this book only 3 stars.

Even considering the monumental task of summarizing the key points of the Thirty Years' War, Richard Bonney does a poor job. The primary complaint I have is a general lack of grounding. An area map is blatantly missing, so the reader will have an extremely hard time grasping the location and significance of many battles in the book as well as the basic borders and areas of occupation before, during, and after the war. It is frustrating to read about occurrences in cities and duchies of which you're not sure where they are. Without additional research to get a firm understanding of the layout of the region, much of this book will be ineffective and uninteresting. Additionally, tables summarizing the various currencies used by the key players and their respective values at the time would be an immense help, as Bonney discusses wages and contributions frequently without much grounding. Finally, a table or list of the various barons, princes, kings, emperors, cardinals, generals, and so on and who they work for would be very helpful. With only a couple of pages dedicated to quick-reference guides about some of the basic background information, this book would be much more effective.

A fun and interesting alternative history series set in Germany during the Thirty Years' War is the Assisti Shards series, starting with 1632 (don't let the silly-looking cover scare you away).

So while this book is well-written, contains some good art, gives some good history, and any 97 page book would be inadequate to describe this conflict, it still falls short of the mark set by other Essential History authors.