The Reality of War: A Memoir of the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71)

Book Description

Although a relatively unknown campaign, the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) ultimately had great repercussions during World War I. Patry's firsthand and beautifully written chronicle vividly describes the bloodshed and appalling atrocities committed during the French army's advance to retake the Paris commune, and powerfully critiques the high command's shortcomings and follies. Elegantly translated, this ranks as one of the best examples of war memoirs written in any language, and includes informative biographies of the main participants and other valuable background material.

Customer Reviews:

Memoir of the Franco Prussian War.......2002-04-22

Victor Hugo christened 1870-71 as the "Terrible Year". During that long year, France experienced the destruction of two armies at Metz and Sedan, the Siege of Paris and the unsucessful attempts to relive the city and finally the bloody Paris Commune.

In the years following these disasters the French people tried to put a positive spin on this series of catastrophies. Artists like Detaille and De Nueville painted canvasses of noble soldiers defending the nation. Writers and historians tried to find positive stories and lessons from the Defeat.

Leonce Patry's memoirs were written 25 years after the war. His goal was to tell his story with as much honesty and frankness as was possible. His memoirs are a reaction to the false sugar coating that had been taking place during the previous 25 years.

Patry began the war as a young naive lieutenant and finished it as battle hardened captain. He led troops in the initial battles of the War. He was trapped during the siege of Metz and was there when Bezaine surrendered. Patry escaped Prussian imprisonment and fled to northern France where he took up arms again with Faidherbe's Army of the North. He endured the final battles of the War and then led his troops against the Paris Communards.

If one is looking for a general history of the Franco Prussian War, one should immediately go to Michael Howard's classic study of the war. Patry's well told story is about war as seen by lieutenants and captains. Patry writes well and is very unassuming.

Book Description

The Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 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 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 had twice as many troops as 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, and they carried the best rifle in the world. 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 the definitive history of the Franco-Prussian War. Dr. Geoffrey Wawro is Professor of Strategic Studies at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. Wawro has published two books: The Austro-Prussian War (Cambridge, 1996) and Warfare and Society in Europe, 1792-1914 (Routledge, 2000). He has published articles in The Journal of Military History, War in History, The International History Review, The Naval War College Review, American Scholar, and the European History Quarterly, and op-eds in the Los Angeles Times, New York Post, Miami Herald, Hartford Courant, and Providence Journal. Wawro has won several academic prizes including the Austrian Cultural Institute Prize and the Society for Military History Moncado Prize for Excellence in the Writing of Military History. He has lectured widely on military innovation and international security in Europe, the U.S., and Canada and is host of the History Channel program Hardcover History--a weekly book show with leading historians, pundits, critics, statesmen and journalists.

Customer Reviews:

Brilliant.......2007-08-07

Not only does Wawro do a very creditable job of covering the color and drama of the war, but he does a brilliant job of explaining the broader issues. I teach foreign relations and, in just a few pages, Wawro does a better job of explaining how Napoleon III and Bismarck upset the European balance of power than any specialist writer in the field. He also does a superb job of explaining the significance of the revolution in weaponry and tactics that would come to fruition (or doom) in WWI. All done in a very readable and accessible style.

Not a Bad Place to Start.......2007-07-27

For those of the reading type who have never read anything on the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, Mr. Geoffrey Wawro's 2003 book on the subject is a good place to start. Mr. Wawro brings a 19th-Century European conflict to chaotic and bloody life, illustrating that these pre-World War conflicts were not the chivalric engagements they are often made out to be.

The book is structured as if for a lecture at a military university. Beginning with the reasons for the war, the author then moves step-by-step to the make-up of the opposing French and Prussian armies, to the mobilizations and then into a sequential listing of the battles. The prose is clean and very readable, and with the stripped-down structure of the book makes for a generally easily-understandable narrative. (The confusion--at least to this reviewer--is the same type found in most other operational military histories, that of trying to keep up with this Corps staffed by these Regiments who sent forward those Battalions against this Corps...) The battle scenes are brought to life by first-hand accounts dug up by the author from various archives and previous works, making for an engrossing recounting. Illustrated through Mr. Wawro's book is the effect this conflict had on the development of modern warfare, and the precedent it set for the next major European clash that came forty-three years later. The by-the-numbers explanation is what helps make this a great book for beginner students of this short but intense war.

On the question of a pro-German bias by the author, the verdict is still out. Even if Mr. Wawro were a "Rah-Rah Yay Germans!" type it is hard not to see that the Prussians were indeed the better-prepared nation for the duration of the war. The French put up good fights but had abysmal leadership, both on the political and military level. It is a surprise that Marshal Bazaine wasn't tried for gross and treasonous incompetence after the war. The Prussians planned everything as best they could in the scientific, detailed manner for which they've been endlessly stereotyped. The French leadership did little to prep and seemed to believe they would win based on their past greatness alone. While French troops did put devastating Chassepot rifle fire on the massed-infantry attacks the headstrong Prussians frequently resorted to, the 50-Points-for-Planning award would have to go the Germans on this one.

The main pet peeve that was needled more than once in this book were the editing errors, from incomplete or awkward sentences to the double-typed words that pop up in places. Overall, The Franco-Prussian War was a good read on an event that is frequently mentioned in Franco-German history but of which much may not be known.

I'm taking a star off..........2007-06-15

because the author is so obviously biased and so prone to evaluating things with an all-knowing self-satisfaction. Wawro is clearly a very bright man and has done some excellent research and analysis, but the tone is so off, and he exibits so little empathy for the problems of the French or the reality of the fog of war that it hurts what is overall an admirable operational history. Wawro is not as biased and contemptuous here as he is in his history of the 1866 war between Austria, most of the German States, and Prussia, but at times he comes close. And the last anecdote about the chicken is just embarrassing--I guess that sorry bird is supposed to show us that Germany was on the road to the Holocaust or some such nonsense. Good research and excellent writing, but the great book that Wawro may have in him didn't come to fruition here. I'm hoping that age brings the understanding, tolerance, and empathy that should temper his talent.

good book on a neglected war.......2007-02-08

This is an excellent book on the first modern war. A war which did so much to shape the modern world as the results helped lead the world towards the catastrophe of 1914. Fast paced and easy to read, it is perhaps more acessable to the general public than the other excellent one volume history in English by Michael Howard. Should be read in conjunction with the author's other book on the war of 1866.

It ain't Howard, but it ain't bad!.......2007-02-07

This isn't a substitute for wading through Sir Michael Howard's tome. But, it is a very readable book on a highly important war that set the stage for WWI. Good maps, excellent prose and good illustrations. If you want to read only one book on the Franco-Prussian war, you won't go wrong here. If you've read Howard, then it isn't going to provide any revelations.

Paris Babylon: The Story of the Paris Commune

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IN THE TIME OF THE PARIS COMMUNE
A very well-written account of a fascinating time and place
A very well-written account of a fascinating time and place
excellent contemporaneous history of the French commune

Paris Babylon: The Story of the Paris Commune
Rupert Christiansen
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0140129804

Customer Reviews:

IN THE TIME OF THE PARIS COMMUNE.......2007-01-19

March 18th every year is the anniversary of the establishment of the Paris Commune in 1871. That event rightly takes its place in an honored position in the revolutionary pantheon and is commemorated, especially in Paris, as such. Why? As the founder of scientific socialism, Karl Marx, noted in his spirited defense of the Commune against the raging reaction of capitalist Europe and the faint-hearted in the international labor movement at the time this was the first, trembling expression of the `dictatorship of the proletariat'-the time of working class rule. That it was crushed quickly by that same capitalist Europe and repressed thoroughly does not take away from the grandeur of the experience. Historians have rightly taken it as a seminal event in late 19th century European history. The book under review takes up the narrative around the establishment of the Commune in an interesting way.

The study of history like other major scholarly disciplines goes through cycles and, frankly, fads concerning the important lessons of any period and about what and who to emphasize or not emphasize. This book belongs in the camp of the social micro-history school where setting up the milieu is decisive for interpreting the sequence of events. The author has done a creditable job of setting the milieu of the Second Empire in France under the dyspeptic Louis Bonaparte and his entourage, including his demanding and, at times, bizarre wife. Moreover he sets the scene by a rather vivid, and perhaps too vivid, detailing of Parisian manners, mores, cuisine, architecture and other cultural phenomena which point menacingly to the disastrous military overconfidence and woeful under preparedness that was about to occur in 1870 when confronted by the Prussians.

Less satisfactory is his analysis of the enigmatic but politically clever Louis Bonaparte and the social base on which his regime rested. Karl Marx did a much more thorough, if more polemical, analysis on that base of mainly rural farmers and their political dependents who stuck by Bonaparte to the end in his classic exposition of historical materialism, the 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. Also the author's narrative of the establishment and crushing of the Paris Commune does not lend itself to drawing any lessons from the experience. While the author is not
overtly hostile to the Commune he is clearly no friend, and makes no bones about it. Seemingly the Communards got what they deserved, or at least what they should have expected. If you want to get an in-depth analysis of those lessons you must look elsewhere, especially if you are looking for the implications for future revolution strategy for the 20th century Marxist movement. With those shortcomings in mind if you want a good literary Inside Edition-like social travelogue of Paris in the third quarter of the 19th century this is as good a place as any to start.

A very well-written account of a fascinating time and place.......1999-10-18

Rupert Christiansen has written an historical account that is also a "great read"; hard to put down and very enlightening. I had just finished reading a novel that was set (partially) in Paris around the time of the Franco-Prussian war and wanted to find out more. Surprisingly, this is the only book I could find that dealt with this utterly fascinating time and place. The title of the book says it's "the story of the Paris Commune". This is incorrect; only a relatively small part of the book deals with the Commune, while the major part describes life in the Second Empire of Louis Napoleon and the Siege of Paris during the war. I couldn't help but draw parallels to current Western culture while reading about Paris in the 1860s: creation of incredible wealth and its ostentatious display, pioneering techniques of entrepreneurship, rapid developments in transportation and communication, rampant cynicism among the intellectuals, popular fascination by the news media with private lives and notorious murders, and a very public decline in sexual morality. The author covers the sociology, the history, and the politics in a very smooth combination of original sources and his own narrative. It never gets bogged down on detail, but still presents a very complete description. This is a book that could be enjoyed by anyone, even those who have little knowlege of the 19th century and little interest in history.

A very well-written account of a fascinating time and place.......1999-10-18

excellent contemporaneous history of the French commune.......1996-11-17

Rupert Christiansen really brings the Commune alive through a combination of research, archived interview, old news clips, and photos. The commune's ascendancy and collapse is related as a compelling chronology. His fine writing brings out the french pompousness that lead to the franco- prussian war; the siege of Paris; the state of denial that held to the last days among the upper class; the state of terror and famine of the lower class; and the ultimate collapse of the commune and eventual slaughter of the communards. As one who has lived in Paris, I highly recommend it even if you don't traditionally read history books.

Paris in Despair: Art and Everyday Life under Siege (1870-1871)

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Paris Under Siege

Paris in Despair: Art and Everyday Life under Siege (1870-1871)
Hollis Clayson
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0226109518

Book Description

The siege of Paris by Prussians in the fall and winter of 1870 and 1871 turned the city upside down, radically altering its appearance, social structure, and mood. As Hollis Clayson demonstrates in Paris in Despair, the siege took an especially heavy toll on the city's artists, forcing them out of the spaces and routines of their insular prewar lives and thrusting them onto the ramparts (as many became soldiers).

But the crisis did not halt artistic production, as some have suggested. In fact, Clayson argues that the siege actually encouraged innovation, fostering changed attitudes and new approaches to representation among a wide variety of artists as they made art out of their individual experiences of adversity and change—art that has not previously been considered within the context of the siege. Clayson focuses especially on Rosa Bonheur, Edgar Degas, Jean-Alexandre-Joseph Falguière, Edouard Manet, and Henri Regnault, but she also covers a host of other artists, including Ernest Barrias, Gustave Courbet, Edouard Detaille, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Albert Robida, and James Tissot. Paris in Despair includes more than two hundred color and black-and-white images of works by these artists and others, many never before published.

Using the visual arts as an interpretive lens, Clayson illuminates the wide range of issues at play during the siege and thereafter, including questions of political and cultural identity, artistic masculinity and femininity, public versus private space, everyday life and modernity, and gender and class roles in military and civilian society. For anyone concerned with these issues, or with nineteenth-century French art in general, Paris in Despair will be a landmark work.

Customer Reviews:

Paris Under Siege.......2002-10-01

Lavishly illustrated, this book tells a remarkable and little-known story about how denizens survived the Siege of Paris at the height of the Franco-Prussian War (1770-71). It looks at the war through the eyes of the artists who recorded it, and of some who even fought in it. Privileged artists like Degas, Manet, and Regnault suited up and mounted the ramparts, even as they recorded the struggle of day to day life with their charcoal and paint brushes. We encounter other artists--Courbet, Puvis de Chavannes, and Rosa Bonheur--who each served France in his or her own way.

Clayson is an excellent writer and storyteller. In her book, we encounter the endless bread lines, the staving masses who grew so hungry that even the elephant in the zoo was slaughtered and devoured; what role innovations in public lighting played, mail being sent by carrier pigeons that soared above the Prussian troops surrounding the city. Clayson is always sensitive to the role that gender plays in French culture, and we learn how gender roles were challenged during this stressful time. Vividly anecdotal and highly learned, this is the first book to explore the subject of life and art in Paris during one of the most critical moments in French history. A must for anyone interested in Paris or French art and history. And a pleasure to read.

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Gravelotte-St-Privat 1870: End of the Second Empire (Praeger Illustrated Military History)
Philipp Elliot-Wright
Manufacturer: Praeger Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Leipzig 1813: The Battle of the Nations (Praeger Illustrated Military History)

ASIN: 027598902X

Book Description

Probably the hardest fought of all the battles of the Franco-Prussian War, Gravelotte-St-Privat shatters the myth of French inferiority to the Prussian army. Marshal Bazaine's French Army of the Rhine was attempting to retreat on Verdun when it was attacked by superior Prussian forces from both the First and Second armies. Occupying a ridge line running from St.Privat in the north to Gravelotte in the south, Bazaine's army inflicted heavy casualties on the advancing Prussian troops and beat off a determined attack by the Prussian Guard. Finally forced to retreat when the northern flank of his outnumbered forces was turned by Prussia's Saxon allies, Bazaine retreated into the fortress city of Metz. Bottled up in the city, unable to break out through the ring of Prussian forces and with no hope of relief Bazaine's army held on grimly to the end of the war. This battle had a decisive influence on the outcome of the war; had Bazaine met the Prussian forces on anything like equal terms, a victory could have turned the tide of the fighting. Instead, the French failure at Gravelotte-St-Privat led directly to their final defeat at Sedan, the collapse of Napoleon III's regime, and the proclamation of the German Empire. This book examines the events of this fateful action.

Art, War and Revolution in France 1870-1871: Myth, Reportage and Reality

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Art, War and Revolution in France 1870-1871: Myth, Reportage and Reality
John Milner
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
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Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0300084072

Book Description

During a ferociously violent ten-month period in 1870 and 1871, the last Napoleonic empire was destroyed, France was plunged into a hopeless war with Prussia, Paris was besieged, and the revolt of the Paris Commune was suppressed by a new Republic. This engrossing book surveys how artists responded to these cataclysmic events and how they helped to define the events to the public.

Franco-Prussian War: The German Invasion of France 1870-1871, Revised Edition

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Dry as Dust
Boring but informative
an authoritative treatment of a complex conflict
Military history as it should be written
Brisk and Detailed

Franco-Prussian War: The German Invasion of France 1870-1871, Revised Edition
Michael Howard
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Eastern | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0415266718

Book Description

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.

Customer Reviews:

Dry as Dust.......2006-09-15

I don't know enough about the Franco-Prussian War to criticize the research and the facts presented. But this is certainly not an enjoyable book to read. If that is a factor for you, be warned.

Boring but informative.......2004-05-20

I actually have not finished the book yet, so forgive my hypocrisy. From an information and accuracy perspective it is probably the best book on the war. However it is a bit of a tough read, so be prepared. Howard details technology and warfare of the time, along with politics and the like and the book doesn't miss much. However, perhaps that is the reason it seems so long. overall I would say a good book.

an authoritative treatment of a complex conflict.......2003-09-29

Howard does a masterful job in detailing the the military preparations of both sides before the conflict, describing the war itself, and even going into some detail about the increasing importance of technology in "modern" warfare (especially transport). However, there are some shortcommings - the chief among them are the maps. While they are useful in giving the reader an idea of what happened where, they really needed to be more detailed, showing troop movements and positions. I also thought the lack of perspective on the war was disappointing - after all, the Franco-Prussian war was instrumental in the creation of German nationhood, the birth of the Fourth republic, and a foundation stone of the First World War. None of these important after-effects were discussed in any detail whatsoever. As a book of pure military history, though, Howard's book is beyond reproach.

Military history as it should be written.......2003-07-22

The Franco-Prussian War is an unusual conflict in that it is in many ways a study in contrasts. Historically, it set the stage for two twentieth century conflagrations even as it settled scores from the early nineteenth century. Politically, it marked the zenith of French national influence, and the ascendancy of a united German power. Finally, militarily, it offered the first widespread use of breech-loading rifles and modern artillery, even as it often languished in the tactics of an earlier age.

It takes a broad brush to capture all of these elements, and in this book, Michael Howard has succeeded admirably. He has taken an often overlooked conflict and placed it squarely at the crossroads of modern Europe, and a new, more terrible type of war. For while the American Civil War (or even the Crimean War) is often referred to as the first modern war, it is in fact in the Franco-Prussian War that we see all the key elements of modern warfare: national mobilization, citizen soldiers under the guidance of a professional general staff, and the ascendancy of industrialization in both transport and new, more destructive, weapons. At the same time, newer, more insidious developments in the form of guerrilla warfare and the targeting of civilians centers for strategic reasons first make their appearance on a large scale.

Arising out of French objections to the Prussian selection of the Spanish monarch, this war, like many before and since, arose out of a complete lack of French appreciation for the changes that had overtaken the battlefield. While the French had relied on a small, professional army, the Prussians had adopted a model of mandatory service that allowed them to raise massive, reasonably competent forces with unprecedented speed. Thus, when hostilities broke out the French, who had assumed an easy victory, were caught on their heels and never regained the initiative.

Thus from the summer of 1870 through the depths of winter and into 1871, the story of the Franco-Prussian War is the story of the courage of the French soldier being failed utterly by inept leadership. It wasn't in the strength of Prussian arms, or in the courage of its soldiers that the war was won; rather, it was in the ability of the centralized Prussian command structure to adapt rapidly to events when their French counterparts were still in the dark that victory was secured.

Thus, while Howard's writing on the actual combat is vivid, it is in his appreciation of the fundamentally new Prussian way of war that he is most successful. From the king, through the Bismarck and Moltke, and on down through the rest of the senior command, he paints a vivid portrait of Prussian ideals and ambition. Conversely, he is equally successful at capturing the decrepitude and ineptness of a fragmented French government that lost the war in its opening days, and then prolonged it, to the never ending suffering of its soldiers, long after all hope was lost. Likewise along these lines, Howard nicely illustrates the increasing conflict that inevitable comes between politicians and the military in an era of total war.

That said, I do have a few minor complaints. The first is that Howard almost never translates quotes from the original French or German, and while I was just barely able to muddle through with what I remember from high school and college, any one who hasn't been exposed to these languages would certainly be frustrated. Secondly, as anyone familiar with European politics knows, nothing happens in a vacuum, and yet Howard spends precious little time discussing the implications of the conflict within the international system of the time. Finally, while Howard offers many maps, they offer little to know information about troop positions and lines of march, which leaves the reader flipping back rather than digesting a detailed map at a glance.

However, these are minor complaints about an otherwise eminently successful work. Howard has packed a tremendous amount of research into a readable and digestible volume. His appreciation of the politics and personalities is matched only by his understanding of the weapons of war and the nature of combat. Not only is this a successful history of the Franco-Prussian war, but also a model of what good history writing should be: balanced, well researched, and above all, readable. Finally, Howard's success elevates the Franco-Prussian War to its rightful significance as one of the root causes of the tensions that led to WWI, and hence, to WWII. Thus the student of history should appreciate this work not just for its success in considering immediate events, but for providing a bridge from the Great Power politics of the nineteenth century to the wars of the twentieth.

Jake Mohlman

Brisk and Detailed.......2003-04-25

This is a very detailed account of the military and - to a lesser extent - political maneuverings of the Franco-Prussian War. Given the detail and the heavy footnoting, it is a surprisingly brisk read, though I do have one suggestion to assist future readers: photocopy the various pages that have maps on them so you can easily refer to them as you read on. Since I hadn't thought of this idea while reading the book, I found myself holding two or even three such pages open with the fingers of my left hand while reading battle descriptions many, many pages later.

One disappointment was in the very brief epilogue. The author discusses how the speed of the Prussian victory raised the stakes for all European powers, Germany in particular, but the author does not really discuss the aftermath of the war in France or explain how France formed a post-war government given the fractious way it had fought the war. Every history needs to stop at some point, of course, but a brief explanation of France's recovery seems in order.

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Great Overview Book

Worth Reading

The Cliff Notes of military history

A Convenient and Well-Packaged Summary

The Franco-Prussian War 1870-1871 (Essential Histories)
Stephen Badsey
Manufacturer: Osprey Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1841764213
Release Date: 2003-03-25

Book Description

The Franco-Prussian War broke out in 1870 when Bismarck engineered a war with the French Second Empire under Napoleon III. This was part of his wider political strategy of uniting Prussia with the southern German states, excluding Austria. The war was an overwhelming Prussian victory, and King Wilhelm I was proclaimed Emperor of the new united Germany. The Second Empire collapsed and Napoleon III became an exile in Britain. In the peace settlement with the French Third Republic in 1871 Germany gained the eastern French provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, areas that were to provide a bone of contention for years to come.

Customer Reviews:

Great Overview Book.......2007-09-26

This is a very well written, easy to read book. There are great illustrations and maps as well. If you don't know anything about the Franco-Prussian war this is THE BOOK you need to get.

Worth Reading.......2007-03-20

For a simple look at the Franco-Prussian war, one needs to look no further than Stephen Badsey's "The Franco-Prussian War." His 92 page book covers all the battles and, in particular, the events leading to the war. All other events surrounding the war, such as the revolution in France that it caused, are covered though not explored in depth, as they are topics for other books.

It's apparent Stephen Badsey researched the topic well and writes for understanding, reflecting his lecturing background. The numerous maps are excellent; I have never read a book where every single placename is on an accompanying map; making the text and the battles easy to follow.

The Cliff Notes of military history.......2006-04-03

The "Essential Histories" series from Osprey could easily be compared to the Cliff Notes series. They'll give you a nice introduction to a topic you are not familiar with, but no real depth. Most volumns are under 100 pages; therefore, don't expect many "man in the trenches" stories.

This book is a nice introduction to a relatively small war that would have very much to do with the animosities of the two later World Wars. Grab this before you start your studies of the Great War.

A Convenient and Well-Packaged Summary.......2003-05-14

Despite the fact that the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 had major repercussions for later European history, there has been very works written about in the last forty years except for Michael Howard's excellent The Franco-Prussian War (1871) and Alistair Horne's The Fall of Paris (1967). Thankfully, Sandhurst professor Stephen Badsey has written an excellent summary of the Franco-Prussian War that is not a condensation of those previous works and which constitutes a fresh look at this neglected subject. Foremost in value, is the fact that Badsey's volume looks at the war in its entirety, rather than just the first action-packed month. Overall, Badsey's Franco-Prussian War 1870-1871 is an excellent synopsis and reference source for this critical phase in the development of European military thought and weaponry.

After some brief sections detailing the background to the war, followed by equally brief sections on the opposing sides and the outbreak of war, Stephen Badsey moves into his main 24-page narrative of the war. This narrative is supported by ten maps: Europe in 1870, the main campaigns of the war, the battles on the frontier, the situation at Metz on 14-15 August 1870, the Battle of Mars-la-Tour, two maps on the Battle of Gravelotte-St Privat, the Battle of Sedan, the siege of Paris, and Europe after the war. The illustrations throughout the text are also excellent. Additionally, the concluding sections, such as Portrait of a Soldier, are also quite good. Overall, The Franco-Prussian War 1870-1871 probably packs more into the Osprey Essential Histories format than any other volume to date.

Badsey notes that the French performance in 1870 was so poor that it surprised both sides. Despite possession of superior weaponry (early machine guns, better breech-loading rifles), the French army was handicapped by sloppy staff work and a primitive reserve mobilization system. In essence, the French war machine was brave and well equipped, but totally disorganized. French senior leadership, including the Emperor Napoleon III, was so terrible as to defy rationale explanation. Amazingly, the French declared war on Prussia then had no plans or preparations for an offensive war. Furthermore, the French were diplomatically isolated and had to face an undistracted and increasingly unified German nation-in-being. Badsey notes that, "within a week of the fighting starting, two French armies ...were in full retreat." While the French army performed well at the tactical level - and came close to winning the major Battle of Gravelotte-St. Privat - it was clearly out-performed on the operational level and the two French armies always found themselves outmaneuvered by the Prussians. After a month of war, both French field armies and the Emperor were surrounded and combat ineffective.

Badsey's approach to this subject differs from the conventional interpretation, which tends to see the war as decided in the first four weeks. In particular, Badsey notes how naval power shaped the rest of the conflict, "but critically for this stage of the war, Prussia had no effective navy. French maritime trade and commerce were largely unaffected by the end of the Second Empire and so was French credit overseas; the French economy did not collapse, and the war continued to be financed, in part by borrowing on foreign money markets. French troops were brought back from garrisons overseas and weapons shipped in from other countries." While the newly raised and poorly trained armies of the Third Republic achieved few successes on the battlefield, Badsey notes that they did succeed in protracting the war far beyond what the Prussians had expected. Furthermore, the specter of revolution that appeared in Paris during the Communard scared the Prussians sufficiently to actually assist in rebuilding the French army in order to suppress that political cancer, lest it spread to other European countries. Thus, in Badsey's approach, the reader is presented with a more comprehensive look at the conflict than just a discussion of the frontier battles.

The Franco-Prussian War was also important for several changes in the western manner of warfare. The first Geneva Convention agreements had been signed just prior to the war by both Prussia and France, and the conflict was the first where prisoners and enemy wounded were treated much better than had been heretofore the case. Although war correspondents had appeared in the Crimean War and the American Civil War, their role increased in this war and the telegraph allowed them to report on the fighting in near real-time. While Badsey claims that the Prussian "terror" bombardment of Paris was an innovation in that it targeted civilians to achieve the city's surrender, in fairness, the French should get credit for that "innovation" when Louis XIV's army used mortars to devastate the German city of Koblenz in 1688.

However, Badsey's conclusion is a bit less sure, when he asserts that the result of the war was "the replacement of France by Germany as the dominant power in Europe." France before the war, which lacked any allies, was certainly not the "dominant power in Europe" that Badsey suggests, nor did Prussia's victory and German unification reduce Russian, British or Austrian influence in Europe. While there is no doubt that the war enhanced Germany's military reputation, it did not alter the essentially multipolar balance of power that had been prevalent in Europe before the war. Indeed, in the long run, the victory may have hurt Germany because France realized the need for alliances and assiduously went about coalition building for a future war. Germany on the other hand, which fought and won the war without allies, spent much less effort on cooperative diplomacy and paid for that mistake in 1914-1918.

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Serious and detailed Franco-Prussian war history

The Franco-German War of 1870-71
Helmuth Graf Von Moltke
Manufacturer: Greenhill Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1853671312

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Serious and detailed Franco-Prussian war history.......2001-09-22

London, 1992, Greenhill, lst UK ed thus w/DJ, , limited r/p of 1907 ed, 6x9, 447 pp. appendice lists detailed German & French orders of Battle down to reguiment., 1 MAP.
Helmuth von Moltke was promoted to Field Marshal and created Graf von Moltke by the ambitious William I of Prussia and his Chancellor Bismarck on the consolidation of the German empire in 1871, after his triumphs in the Franco-German War. A brilliant intellectual, his strategy and generalship had prevailed against the apparently mighty military power of Napoleon III of France. Napoleon had thought to bolster popular support for his rule by extending his territory to the Rhine. Instead he lost his throne and France was humiliatingly forced to cede Alsace and Lorraine.

By the time this war broke out, von Moltke had already achieved outstanding and surprising successes against Austria in the Six Weeks' War in 1866, and, a perfectionist in organisation, was the creator of the General Staff system of today. Rapidity of attack by the use of railway transport was as successful in France as in his earlier victories, but in France defeat of the army was followed by a people's war before final victory was achieved, exemplified most vividly by the long and horrific siege of Paris.

Against military autobiography in principle, von Moltke was nevertheless prevailed upon to write the history of this war, thus achieving for the reader the best of both worlds - a careful and accurate description of events, combined with insights into strategy which as commander only he could authoritatively give. From the preparations for war and the combat of Weissenburg on 4th August 1870, von Moltke sweeps the reader through his carefully planned campaign including every stage of the war up to the armistice and the homeward march of the victorious German army. Von Moltke is considered by many the most able mind in military matters since Napoleon, and in this unimpeachable work has left for posterity the rare legacy of a complete war recorded from the viewpoint of its commander-in-chief.

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