Peter Hamish Wilson's Books

Iron and Blood

A Military History of the German-Speaking Peoples since 1500

By: Peter H. Wilson

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Iron and Blood

A Military History of the German-Speaking Peoples since 1500

By: Peter H. Wilson

From the author of the acclaimed The Thirty Years War and Heart of Europe, a masterful, landmark reappraisal of German military history, and of the preconceptions about German militarism since before the rise of Prussia and the world wars. German military history is typically viewed as an inexorable march to the rise of Prussia and the two world wars, the road paved by militarism and the result a specifically German way of war. Peter Wilson challenges this narrative. Looking beyond Prussia to German-speaking Europe across the last five centuries, Wilson finds little unique or preordained in German militarism or warfighting. Iron and Blood takes as its starting point the consolidation of the Holy Roman Empire, which created new mechanisms for raising troops but also for resolving disputes diplomatically. Both the empire and the Swiss Confederation were largely defensive in orientation, while German participation in foreign wars was most often in partnership with allies. The primary aggressor in Central Europe was not Prussia but the Austrian Habsburg monarchy, yet Austria’s strength owed much to its ability to secure allies. Prussia, meanwhile, invested in militarization but maintained a part-time army well into the nineteenth century. Alongside Switzerland, which relied on traditional militia, both states exemplify the longstanding civilian element within German military power. Only after Prussia’s unexpected victory over France in 1871 did Germans and outsiders come to believe in a German gift for warfare—a special capacity for high-speed, high-intensity combat that could overcome numerical disadvantage. It took two world wars to expose the fallacy of German military genius. Yet even today, Wilson argues, Germany’s strategic position is misunderstood. The country now seen as a bastion of peace spends heavily on defense in comparison to its peers and is deeply invested in less kinetic contemporary forms of coercive power.

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Page Count

981

Publisher

Harvard University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0674292855

ISBN 13

9780674292857

War, State and Society in Württemberg, 1677-1793

By: Peter H. Wilson,Peter Hamish Wilson

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War, State and Society in Württemberg, 1677-1793

By: Peter H. Wilson,Peter Hamish Wilson

This book provides a radical new interpretation of the aims of the lesser German princes during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries through the example of the duchy of Württemberg. Arguing that the princes' political ambitions were fundamental in shaping the internal development of their territories, the author sheds new light on the political importance of the notorious German 'soldier trade' and its role in international diplomacy. The wider social and political impact of these policies is also investigated in a comparative framework, while traditional interpretations of the dramatic struggle between duke and estates are challenged in a reassessment of the role of early modern representative institutions in German state development. The relationship of these internal political struggles to the different elements of the Holy Roman Empire is revealed, opening up new perspectives on the role of the German states within the imperial structure and revealing the empire as a flawed but functioning political system.

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Page Count

320

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

052148331X

ISBN 13

9780521483315

Absolutism in Central Europe

By: Peter Hamish Wilson

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Absolutism in Central Europe

By: Peter Hamish Wilson

This book investigates how scholars from a variety of disciplines have defined and explained political development across what was formerly known as the "age of absolutism". It assesses whether the term still has utility as a tool of analysis and it explores the wider ramifications of the process of state-formation from the experience of central Europe from the early 17th century to the start of the 19th.

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Page Count

200

Publisher

Psychology Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0415233518

ISBN 13

9780415233514

Lutzen

(Great Battles Series)

By: Peter Hamish Wilson

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Lutzen

(Great Battles Series)

By: Peter Hamish Wilson

The story of Lutzen, one of the most famous battles of the cataclysmic Thirty Years' War - how it was fought, how it has been remembered, and what it has come to mean.

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Page Count

271

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0199642540

ISBN 13

9780199642540

Zauberflote

By: Peter Branscombe

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Zauberflote

By: Peter Branscombe

Few operas have had more written about them than The Magic Flute, yet few are as often exposed to misguided comment - or to idiosyncratic productions. This book sets out to provide a straightforward account of Mozart's last opera, exposing the half-truths and legends that have proliferated since its first production in 1791. In the first chapter a hitherto unsuspected source for the opening scene is presented and Branscombe reveals the complex relationship between the stories, essays and stage-works on which the plot is based. The second chapter studies the intellectual background, with special attention to Freemasonry. A detailed synopsis follows, then the history of the composition, based on documentary evidence and, in the case of the autograph score, the paper-types used. Chapter 5 examines the identity of the librettist and the qualities of his work, and chapter 6 is a detailed study (by Erik Smith) of Mozart's music and more generally of his late style. Chapter 7 covers the first performance, the cast, early reception, and then the rapid growth in the opera's fame; an outline history of productions concludes the chapter. Anthony Besch discusses the nature of the challenge to the director presented by Die Zauberflöte and suggests how the problems can be overcome. The book contains illustrations, a synopsis, bibliography and discography and will be of interest to music students, scholars and opera-goers.

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Page Count

268

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0521319161

ISBN 13

9780521319164

The Thirty Years War

Europe’s Tragedy

By: Peter H. Wilson

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The Thirty Years War

Europe’s Tragedy

By: Peter H. Wilson

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. 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--a conflict that ultimately transformed the map of the modern world.

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Page Count

1048

Publisher

Harvard University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0674036344

ISBN 13

9780674036345

Lutzen

(Great Battles Series)

By: Peter Hamish Wilson

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Lutzen

(Great Battles Series)

By: Peter Hamish Wilson

The story of Lutzen, one of the most famous battles of the cataclysmic Thirty Years' War - how it was fought, how it has been remembered, and what it has come to mean.

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Page Count

271

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0199642540

ISBN 13

9780199642540

The Holy Roman Empire, 1495-1806

By: Peter Hamish Wilson

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The Holy Roman Empire, 1495-1806

By: Peter Hamish Wilson

Drawing on a wealth of specialist studies, Peter Wilson offers an alternative way of looking at the Empire, seeing it not as a failed monarchy or flawed forerunner of a later German nation-state, but on its own terms as a multi-layered structure, combining monarchical, hierarchical and federal elements. Key stages in the Empire's development are explained within the context of wider European history while a final section provides a comprehensive guide to its main institutions and developments across the last four centuries of its existence."--BOOK JACKET.

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Publisher

MacMillan

Published Date

ISBN 10

0333690761

ISBN 13

9780333690765

Book's by Peter Hamish Wilson

Iron and Blood

Iron and Blood

War, State and Society in Württemberg, 1677-1793

War, State and Society in Württemberg, 1677-1793

Absolutism in Central Europe

Absolutism in Central Europe

Lutzen

Lutzen

Zauberflote

Zauberflote

The Thirty Years War

The Thirty Years War

Lutzen

Lutzen

The Holy Roman Empire, 1495-1806

The Holy Roman Empire, 1495-1806

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