Includes the Franco-Prussian Map Pack with over 35 maps, plans and diagrams of the engagements of the war Graf Leonhard Von Blumenthal 1810-1900 was a Prussian General Field Marshal of forthright and upstanding principles who became a legendary figure in the German army during the Austro-Prussian and Franco-Prussian wars. After numerous staff and regimental appointments Von Blumenthal was assigned to be the Chief of the General Staff to the Crown Prince of Prussia, commanding the 2nd army, for the Austro-Prussian war in 1866. The post of Chief of the General Staff was intended to be that of a highly competent adviser to the royal titular commander of the army, and with it came great power of decision. It was upon the 2nd army that the brunt of the fighting fell during the short but brutal war, and its arrival at the battle of Königgratz saved the day. Von Blumenthal’s own part in the entire campaign and particularly on the battlefield of Königgratz was most conspicuous, the grateful Crown Prince said to him, “I know to whom I owe the conduct of my army”. The successful team of Crown Prince and Chief of the General Staff was revived for the struggle with the French during the Franco-Prussian war in 1870. Once again his service was nothing less than brilliant, particularly whilst herding the French Army into the bottleneck trap at Sedan. Bismarck himself said : “So far as one can see, the papers make no mention of him, although he is chief of the staff to the Crown Prince and, next after Moltke, deserves most credit for the conduct of the war. ... He won the battles of Wörth and Wissembourg, and after that of Sedan, as the Crown Prince was not always interfering with his plans.” These fascinating journals are an undiscovered gem of military writing and a particularly interesting sidelight on two often forgotten wars that still shape Europe today.

The Franco-Prussian War did not end with the catastrophic French defeat at Sedan on 1 September 1870 when an entire French army surrendered, the Emperor Napoleon III was captured and his regime collapsed. The war went on for another five agonizing months, and resolved itself into a contest for Paris—for while Paris held out, France was undefeated. The story of this dramatic final phase of the war is the subject of Douglas Fermers masterly account, the sequel to his Sedan 1870. He weaves this story of military victory and defeat into a gripping narrative and it sets the extraordinary events of nearly 150 years ago in the wider context of European history.

The second volume of this comprehensive military history examines the fall of the Second French Empire and the founding of a unified Germany. Helmuth von Moltke’s victory over France in the Battle of Sedan resulted in the capture of Napoleon III. But the war against the Government of National Defense presented quite different problems to von Moltke and his staff. Although the Siege of Paris loomed large during the second phase of the war, historian Quintin Barry fully explores events in other parts of France, including the siege of Strasbourg, the activities of the Francs Tireurs, the investment of Metz, and the battle against the French armies of the Loire, the North, and the East. As with the first volume of this study, Barry has made full use of an extensive number of German and French language sources. His detailed text is accompanied by a number of black and white illustrations and newly drawn battle maps. Orders of battle are also provided.

How did ministers, journalists, academics, artists, and subjects in the German lands imagine war during the nineteenth century? The Napoleonic Wars had been the bloodiest in Europe's history, directly affecting millions of Germans, yet their long-term consequences on individuals and on 'politics' are still poorly understood. This study makes sense of contemporaries' memories and histories of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic campaigns within a much wider context of press reportage of wars elsewhere in Europe and overseas, debates about military service and the reform of Germany's armies, revolution and counter-revolution, and individuals' experiences of violence and death in their everyday lives. For the majority of the populations of the German states, wars during an era of conscription were not merely a matter of history and memory; rather, they concerned subjects' hopes, fears, and expectations of the future. This is the second volume of Mark Hewitson's study of the violence of war in the German lands during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It investigates the complex relationship between military conflicts and the violent acts of individual soldiers. In particular, it considers the contradictory impact of 'pacification' in civilian life and exposure to increasingly destructive technologies of killing during war-time. This contradiction reached its nineteenth-century apogee during the 'wars of unification', leaving an ambiguous imprint on post-war discussions of military conflict.

American Historical Review is the oldest scholarly journal of history in the United States and the largest in the world. Published by the American Historical Association, it covers all areas of historical research.

The Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1 violently changed the course of European History. Alarmed by Bismarck's territorial ambitions and the Prussian army's crushing defeats of Denmark in 1864 and Austria in 1866, French Emperor Napoleon III vowed to bring Prussia to heel. Digging into many European and American archives for the first time, Geoffrey Wawro's The Franco-Prussian War describes the war that followed in thrilling detail. While the armies mobilized in July 1870, the conflict appeared 'too close to call'. Prussia and its German allies overwhelmingly outnumbered the French. But Marshal Achille Bazaine's grognards ('old grumblers') were the stuff of legend, the most resourceful, battle-hardened, sharp-shooting troops in Europe. From the political intrigues that began and ended the war to the bloody battles at Gravelotte and Sedan and the last murderous fights on the Loire and in Paris, this is a stunning, authoritative history of the Franco-Prussian War.

In 1870 Bismarck ordered the Prussian Army to invade France, inciting one of the most dramatic conflicts in European history. It transformed not only the states-system of the Continent but the whole climate of European moral and political thought. The overwhelming triumph of German military might, evoking general admiration and imitation, introduced an era of power politics, which was to reach its disastrous climax in 1914. First published in 1961 and now with a new introduction, The Franco-Prussian War is acknowledged as the definitive history of one of the most dramatic and decisive conflicts in the history of Europe.