For tactical and strategic ingenuity, for daring and ruthless determination and the capacity to inspire troops, Frederick the Great was without equal. In this detailed life of ‘Old Fritz’, Christopher Duffy, who has written widely on the army of Frederick and on the armies of his adversaries, Austria and Russia, has produced a definitive account of his military genius.
"David Fraser, himself a noted general and author of a bestselling biography of Erwin Rommel, places Frederick's life as a soldier at the center of this immaculately researched book, allowing us to understand Frederick's strengths and weaknesses in the field more completely than in any previous biography. Fraser not only brings to these pages the authentic smell of battle, but also offers a sweeping account of strategy and maneuver, of psychology, morale and the impact of victory and defeat on the victors and vanquished. He also knows how to view military action in the context of eighteenth-century European diplomacy and the ever-shifting political forces that would re-shape the map of Europe and touch off the American Revolution."--BOOK JACKET.
For tactical and strategic ingenuity, for daring and ruthless determination and the capacity to inspire troops, Frederick the Great was without equal. In this detailed life of ‘Old Fritz’, Christopher Duffy, who has written widely on the army of Frederick and on the armies of his adversaries, Austria and Russia, has produced a definitive account of his military genius.
A look at the life of Frederick the Great reveals the often misunderstood king as not only a feared conqueror, but also a patron of the arts and a progressive lawmaker who helped make Berlin one of Europe's great capital cities.
SPECTATOR, NEW STATESMAN, SUNDAY TIMES AND TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2015 Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, dominated the 18th century in the same way that Napoleon dominated the start of the 19th - a force of nature, a caustic, ruthless, brilliant military commander, a monarch of exceptional energy and talent, and a knowledgeable patron of artists, architects and writers, most famously Voltaire. From early in his reign he was already a legendary figure - fascinating even to those who hated him. Tim Blanning's brilliant new biography recreates a remarkable era, a world which would be swept away shortly after Frederick's death by the French Revolution. Equally at home on the battlefield or in the music room at Frederick's extraordinary miniature palace of Sanssouci, Blanning draws on a lifetime's obsession with the 18th century to create a work that is in many ways the summation of all that he has learned in his own rich and various career. Frederick's spectre has hung over Germany ever since: an inspiration, a threat, an impossible ideal - Blanning at last allows us to understand him in his own time.
The campaigns of Frederick the Great were a watershed in the history of Europe. They inaugurated a new pattern - of total war for limited objectives - that was to endure until 1916. Frederick's battles were designed to convince his adversaries of the wisdom of making and keeping peace.
This is a study of the greatest army of its time, the army of Frederick the Great, by the finest historian of the wars of the 18th Century. The Prussian military machine is analysed in detail, from top to bottom, from the mentality of the Junkers who led it to the way the men were clothed. The tactics, the recruitment, and the finances of the military are laid bare. A great army is made flesh and blood. 60 b/w illustrations, 24 maps, 10 diagrams
The army of Frederick the Great of Prussia is generally known as an efficient fighting machine based on brutal and strict drill procedures that led to broken but fearless soldiers as well as glorious battle victories. In analysing the mentalities of the men who established Prussia's great power status, Prussian Army Soldiers and the Seven Years' War fundamentally challenges this interpretation. Drawing on a vast array of primary sources (including the writing of regimental chaplain Küster, who could probably be called the first modern military psychologist) and presenting the first English translation of 12 letters of common Prussian soldiers from the Seven Years' War, this book shows that the soldiers were feeling individuals. They were loving husbands, vulnerable little brothers, deeply religious preachers, and sometimes even bold adventurers. All these individuals, however, were united by one idea which made them fight efficiently: honour. In Prussian Army Soldiers and the Seven Years' War, the different elements of the Prussian soldiers' concept of such honour are expertly analysed. The result is a nuanced, sophisticated, and much-needed psychological history of Frederick the Great's army.
This is the first publication in English of Otto Busch's important and original study of the origins of militarism in Prussia. First published in German in 1962, it remains unsurpassed in its highly original approach to the origins and development of the unique military system by which Prussia vaulted to great power status in the eighteenth century and to the leadership of a unified Germany in the nineteenth century. That system, created by Frederick William I (1713-1740), required the full mobilization of the human and material resources of a still overwhelmingly agrarian country. Both the landowning nobility and peasantry had to be integrated into the system - the nobility as officers and the peasantry as common soldiers. From these circumstances arose a military system that merged and became identical with the social system in the countryside itself - the relationship of subordination and dependency of the peasant to the nobleman being transferred from the rural manor to the army. Noblemen gained new social and political prominence though their identification with army officership and became preferred appointees to the civilian bureaucracy. The close identification between noble and army officership not only perpetuated a military-aristocratic governmental system, but also produced the habits of command and obedience in Prusso-German society still fatefully apparent in the first half of the twentieth century.
The first modern English edition of diverse Enlightenment-era writings by Prussian monarch Frederick the Great Frederick II of Prussia (1712–1786), best known as Frederick the Great, was a prolific writer of philosophical discourses, poems, epics, satires, and more, while maintaining extensive correspondence with prominent intellectuals, Voltaire among them. This edition of selected writings, the first to make a wide range of Frederick’s most important ideas available to a modern English readership, moves beyond traditional attempts to see his work only in light of his political aims. In these pages, we can finally appreciate Frederick’s influential contributions to the European Enlightenment—and his unusual role as a monarch who was also a published author. In addition to Frederick’s major opus, the Anti-Machiavel, the works presented here include essays, prefaces, reviews, and dialogues. The subjects discussed run the gamut from ethics to religion to political theory. Accompanied by critical annotations, the texts show that we can understand Frederick’s views of kingship and the state only if we engage with a broad spectrum of his thought, including his attitudes toward morality and self-love. By contextualizing his arguments and impact on Enlightenment beliefs, this volume considers how we can reconcile Frederick’s innovative public musings with his absolutist rule. Avi Lifschitz provides a robust and detailed introduction that discusses Frederick’s life and work against the backdrop of eighteenth-century history and politics. With its unparalleled scope and cross-disciplinary appeal, Frederick the Great’s Philosophical Writings firmly establishes one monarch’s multifaceted relevance for generations of readers and scholars to come.
