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The Thirty Years War: Europe’s Tragedy Paperback – October 15, 2011

by Peter H. Wilson (Author)

4.5 274 ratings

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A deadly continental struggle, the Thirty Years War devastated seventeenth-century Europe, killing nearly a quarter of all Germans and laying waste to towns and countryside alike. Peter Wilson offers the first new history in a generation of a horrifying conflict that transformed the map of the modern world.

When defiant Bohemians tossed the Habsburg emperor’s envoys from the castle windows in Prague in 1618, the Holy Roman Empire struck back with a vengeance. Bohemia was ravaged by mercenary troops in the first battle of a conflagration that would engulf Europe from Spain to Sweden. The sweeping narrative encompasses dramatic events and unforgettable individuals―the sack of Magdeburg; the Dutch revolt; the Swedish militant king Gustavus Adolphus; the imperial generals, opportunistic Wallenstein and pious Tilly; and crafty diplomat Cardinal Richelieu. In a major reassessment, Wilson argues that religion was not the catalyst, but one element in a lethal stew of political, social, and dynastic forces that fed the conflict.

By war’s end a recognizably modern Europe had been created, but at what price? The Thirty Years War condemned the Germans to two centuries of internal division and international impotence and became a benchmark of brutality for centuries. As late as the 1960s, Germans placed it ahead of both world wars and the Black Death as their country’s greatest disaster.

An understanding of the Thirty Years War is essential to comprehending modern European history. Wilson’s masterful book will stand as the definitive account of this epic conflict.

For a map of Central Europe in 1618, referenced on page XVI, please visit this book’s page on the Harvard University Press website.

Print length

1024 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press
Publication date

October 15, 2011
Dimensions

6.37 x 2.05 x 9.25 inches
ISBN-10

0674062310
ISBN-13

978-0674062313
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“In his monumental study of the causes and the consequences of the Thirty Years War, Wilson challenges traditional interpretations of the war as primarily religious. He explores instead the political, social, economic as well as religious forces behind the conflict...Wilson then provides a meticulous account of the war, introducing some of its great personalities: the crafty General Wallenstein; the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus, who preserved his state through canny political treaties and military operations; and Hapsburg archdukes Rudolf and Matthias, the brothers whose quarrels marked the future of Bohemia, Austria and Hungary. By the war's end, ravaged as all the states were by violence, disease and destruction, Europe was more stable, but with sovereign states rather than empires, and with a secular order. Wilson's scholarship and attention to both the details and the larger picture make his the definitive history of the Thirty Years War.”―Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Among continental Europeans, the Thirty Years War is etched in memory...A definitive account has been needed, and now Peter Wilson, one of Britain's leading historians of Germany, has provided it. The Thirty Years War: Europe's Tragedy is a history of prodigious erudition that manages to corral the byzantine complexity of the Thirty Years War into a coherent narrative. It also offers a bracingly novel interpretation. Historians typically portray the Thirty Years War as the last and goriest of Europe's religious wars--a final bonfire of the zealots before the cooler age of enlightened statecraft. Mr. Wilson severely qualifies this conventional wisdom. It turns out that the quintessential war of religion was scarcely one at all...Wilson's masterful account of the Thirty Years War is a reminder that war, and peace, are almost never the offspring of conviction alone.”―Jeffrey Collins, Wall Street Journal

“Only in retrospect did the strife acquire coherence as the Thirty Years' War, and Wilson incisively cuts through its several phases to recount the objectives and options of the warring parties...Confidently argued, clearly written, Wilson's history is superb coverage of this pivotal period in European history.”―Gilbert Taylor, Booklist

“Peter Wilson's book is a major work, the first new history of the Thirty Years' War in a generation. It is a fascinating, brilliantly written attempt to explain a compelling series of events, which tore the heart out of Europe.”―The Times

“[It] succeeds brilliantly. It is huge both in its scene-setting and its unfolding narrative detail...It is to Wilson's credit that he can both offer the reader a detailed account of this terrible and complicated war and step back to give due summaries. His scholarship seems to me remarkable, his prose light and lovely, his judgments fair. This is a heavyweight book, no doubt. Sometimes, though, the very best of them have to be.”―Paul Kennedy, Sunday Times

“Wilson's monumental study captures both the complexities of the political and military transformations and the level of brutality that the endemic struggles unleashed...This will be the defining study of the Thirty Years War for the next generation.”―P. G. Wallace, Choice

About the Author

Peter H. Wilson is the author of Heart of Europe: A History of the Holy Roman Empire, an Economist and Sunday Times Best Book, and The Thirty Years War: Europe’s Tragedy, winner of the Distinguished Book Award from the Society of Military History. He has appeared on BBC Radio and has written for Prospect, the Los Angeles Times, and the Financial Times. President of the Society for the History of War and a fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Wilson is Chichele Professor of the History of War at the University of Oxford. His work has been translated into Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, and Spanish.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press; Reprint edition (October 15, 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 1024 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0674062310
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0674062313
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.37 x 2.05 x 9.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #320,040 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #22 in Denmark History
- #7,112 in Military History (Books)
- #7,585 in World History (Books)

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4.5 274 ratings

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Bror Erickson

30 Weeks for 30 years

Reviewed in the United States on July 26, 2021

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Peter Wilson has done us all a great service writing a comprehensive overview of a very complicated subject. He is fair and even-handed when dealing with the different characters. Neither side is demonized. But the issues are investigated and reported thoroughly. He even spends a lot of time dealing with the counter-reformation and other events leading up to the famed defenestration of Prague, typically marking the beginning of the thirty years war.
The footnotes are extensive! I like that. I like being able to research further separate events in further detail.
The maps are great and easy to follow, individual battle diagrams are very nice to follow.
I also like his occasional reviews of literature surrounding this war, both contemporary and later, his analysis of historical scholarship, its pitfalls, and strengths.
It's not a book that a person can read fast. At least I could not. My schedule was 1 week per year of the war. Still, when finished, I feel I have a greater understanding of European history and politics. It needs to be said that this war still dictates many of our own biases about religion, politics, and the futility of war.
It is a historical event that deserves more attention, more understanding. Peter Wilson does a great job of explaining the intrigue, the effects, the personalities, and the people of this war.

28 people found this helpful

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EJR

You do not need a Masters in History to enjoy this book!!!

Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2023

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I am about 200 pages into this book and felt compelled to write a review after seeing how many reviews complain about there being too much information in the book and saying things like “don’t read if you aren’t an expert in European history. This is just untrue. Yes there is a lot of information in this book but if you are passionate or interested in history and have an attention span longer than a Tik Tok video you will be fine. And you do not need to be an expert in European history to enjoy this book. Are you going to have to look some things up occasionally? Yes. But if you’re not trying to learn something why are you reading non fiction in the first place? People complaining about this book are most likely people that do not read much and have trouble keeping track of a 1 hour episode of any show on television. If you take the time to read this book and while you’re reading it google a couple of words or events or people then you will love this book. It is an amazing book and a truly monumental work of scholarship. Anyone interested in History should read this book. That is all I have to say thank you for listening.

56 people found this helpful

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Pax

Great author, bad binding quality.

Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2023

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The author is fantastic. The writing and quality of scholarship is top tier. The publisher on the other hand? The binding and cover is flimsy. Far too fragile for a book over 1k pages long. Not the quality expected for any book, especially not one such as this.

4 stars for the author, 0 stars for the publisher.

2 people found this helpful

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A. Tegtmeier

Very thorough

Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2012

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This book has over 1000 pages. Well, it describes a thirty years long war, so it has to cover a lot of ground. And the author does this in a very thorough and comprehensive matter - it takes 266 pages just to arrive at the start of the war. But after reading this, I understood the extremely complicated political, religious, and sociological landscape in Europe in this era, that ultimately led to this war, for the first time. That alone makes this book worth reading.
But it goes on, with deep analysis of the why, who, what, when involved in the war. It is not a compendium of battles - those are certainly part of the war, but are only described to illustrate the overarching spiderweb of strategy, politics and economics that fueled this war.
At times, the book is a bit dry, and I am missing a more detailed introduction of the main characters. But it is not a "Three Musketeers" style adventure novel, it is a serious popular-scientific work. I would not go as far as to say that after reading this book you will know everything about the Thirty Years War, all of the big and not so big secrets, not even most of the myriad of details involved. But you certainly will have a better understanding why things happened as they did, how politics, religion, business, and dynastic considerations perpetuated this war until Europe was on the brink of ruin and Germany was devastated and ravaged. It is a very comprehensive book, and you need some staying power for the over thousand pages. But you will be rewarded with a very good narrative and a very interesting viewpoint on this European tragedy.

13 people found this helpful

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Karl S.

Mandatory

Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2016

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I managed to make it distressingly far in my life without knowing too much about the Thirty Years War beyond the absolute basics. This is absolutely the book to read if you're interested in salving your ignorance about seventeenth century Europe in general.

This book's overarching structure is a battle-by-battle, intrigue-by-intrigue overview of the war. If you're like me, you care less about the battles than the intrigues. Personally, I felt that the if the battles had been discussed in much more depth it would have pushed this book over into the category of impossibly boring military history, but fortunately there is much more of an attempt to connect the events together into the broader context of the progress of the conflict. It also does a good job of relating the military aspect of the war to the religious, political, and cultural aspects.

It's a thirty-year-long war, so there's necessarily a lot there to digest. I don't think reading this book is going to make someone able to competently discuss the Thirty Years War at all. I think it provides a solid grounding for further reading. I think it also might benefit from a second reading, but the thing is 850 pages plus endnotes.

48 people found this helpful

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J. Hofmann

Well-written an ld thoroughly researched

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 12, 2020

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A well-written and thorough history of one of Europe's darkest periods (there is some competition for that title). Essential for anyone force-fed a grim diet of Nazi history by the national curriculum.

2 people found this helpful

Dr Christopher John Terry

A very detailed and circumspect t study that add as a both knowledge and p err rspective

Reviewed in Germany on February 27, 2018

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One the best history books in recent times
.an excellent reference book as well as rewarding reading.innovative, detailed, instructive. First class

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歴史愛好家

歴史愛好者

Reviewed in Japan on December 17, 2015

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本文が800頁にも及ぶ分厚い書物ですが、毎日少しずつ読み進めています。当時の神聖ローマ帝国の様子がよくわかる内容になっています。
日本の学者や歴史家が書いた邦文の歴史書ては得られない内容のものになっています。戦争が始まってからの経過だけでなく、戦争に至る背景が
十分に説明されています。amasonに在庫が有ったので、プライムで即座に入手できたことも良かったと思います。

4 people found this helpful

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customer

An excellent comprehensive overview of complex subject

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 21, 2015

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An excellent comprehensive overview of complex subject. Superb coverage of political, economic and military aspects of the war, just what I was hoping it would be!

5 people found this helpful

Theodore

Serious academic work on 30 Years War

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 4, 2021

Verified Purchase

Main complaint:- lack of maps of of Holy Roman Empire. Maps would highlight where all the myriad battles took place, and cities/provinces in relation to modern EU. Wilson seems fixated on numbers of combatants in each encounter between opposing armies, but how accurate are the figures? There is not much information about the horrors suffered by the civilian population throughout the period, or about the mercenaries fighting on both sides (Scots, Irish and presumably English). However a magisterial piece of historical writing about a civil war that still has bearing on modern day Europe.

One person found this helpful

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