The Austro-Prussian War: Austria's War with Prussia and Italy in 1866

A very good analysis of the most imortant war until WWII. Wawro outlines how the invention of the breech loading rifle, coupled with the idea of enveloping one's opponent, set the stage for every major war until 1945. The Napoleonic idea of the massed battalions overwhelming one's enemies by cutting into them with masses of bayonet armed infantry, was dealt a fatal blow by the Prussians in this conflict. His final chapter lays out the following embrace of the Prussian strategy, by all the successful armies until the middle of the twentieth century, played out. I sadly note this book no longer seems in print, perhaps due to the English speaking world is reluctant to embrace a book whose principal focus is a battle fought "Far away, by show more people we know little about" to quote Neville Chamberlain. A very great pity. show less

The Habsburg Empire was a congerie of different peoples, and often suffered for it. Sadly, much the same must be said for this book.

The topic is without doubt fascinating: How the Prussians and Italians attacked Austria-Hungary -- for political reasons in the Prussian case, for purposes of a land grab in the Italian. The Prussians had a disadvantage in manpower, but made up for it with superior technology (breech-loading needle guns) and planning (they had invented staff command, and had plans all worked up in advance; the Austrians were operating by the seat of their pants).

But somehow the tale fails to come together. In reading the narrative, one gets the impression of the Austrians stumbling around the Alps trying to figure out how show more to fight. Which is true in a way -- but there was an overall course of development of the campaign even if there wasn't much of a plan on the Austrian side.

There is a lot of good information here, and quite a few maps (drawn, I think, with the ancient Macintosh program MacDraw). If you go through the index and look up a particular battle, you'll learn a lot. But the outcome of the war of 1866 was to weaken the Habsburg monarchy even more, while allowing Prussia to take a major step toward uniting Germany. And, in reading this book, I found it hard to understand why. show less