Professor Peter H Wilson

Chichele Professor of the History of War

All Souls College

01865 (2)79371

peter.wilson@history.ox.ac.uk

Professor Wilson research interests are centred on the impact of war in European and World Development, as well as the history of the Holy Roman Empire.

See page on All Souls College website

Iron and Blood: A Military History of the German-Speaking Peoples since 1500 book cover

Iron and Blood: A Military History of the German-speaking Peoples Since 1500 (Penguin, October 2022) Winner of the 2023 Duke of Wellington Medal for Military History

For most of its existence German-speaking Europe has been splintered into innumerable states - some substantial (such as Austria and Prussia) and some consisting of just a few Alpine meadows. Its military experience has also been extraordinarily varied: threatened and threatening; a mere buffer-zone, and a global threat. Iron and Blood is a startlingly ambitious and absorbing book. It encompasses five centuries of political, military, technological and economic change to tell the story of the German-speaking lands, from the Rhine to the Balkan frontier, from Switzerland to the North Sea.

Lützen: Great Battles (OUP, 2018)

The Thirty Years' War (1618-48) was Europe's most destructive conflict prior to the two world wars. Two of European history's greatest generals faced each other at Lützen in November 1632, mid-way through this terrible war. Neither achieved his objective. Albrecht von Wallenstein withdrew his battered imperial army at nightfall, unaware that his opponent, King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, had died a few hours earlier.

The Holy Roman Empire. A Thousand Years of Europe's History (Penguin, 2017)

A great, sprawling, ancient and unique entity, the Holy Roman Empire, from its founding by Charlemagne to its destruction by Napoleon a millennium later, formed the heart of Europe. It was a great engine for inventions and ideas, it was the origin of many modern European states, from Germany to the Czech Republic, its relations with Italy, France and Poland dictated the course of countless wars - indeed European history as a whole makes no sense without it.

This work has also been published in Italian and Spanish.

The Thirty Years War: Europe's Tragedy (Harvard University Press, 2011)

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. Peter Wilson offers the first new history in a generation of a horrifying conflict that transformed the map of the modern world.

The best books about German military history that say something different

Shepherd

April 2023

Peter H. Wilson on the Military History of the German-Speaking Peoples

School of War with Aaron MacLean Podcast

11 April 2023

Listen on Spotify here.

Inside The War Room: Iron and Blood: A Military History of the German-Speaking Peoples since 1500

Inside the War Room with Ryan Ray Podcast

13 March 2023

Listen Apple Podcasts here

Iron and Blood: Germans on the March

History Happy Hour, episode 133

19 February 2023

Listen online here.

Heinrich, Hans and the Thirty Years War

Marian Consort

28 April 2021

The Thirty Years War – Everything you wanted to know

BBC History Magazine

5 March 2021

The Thirty Years War

BBC Radio 4, In Our Time

5 December 2018

The Battle of White Mountain - arguably the most decisive battle of the Thirty Years War

Radio Prague International

6 November 2020

I would like to hear from potential DPhil students regarding:

war in Europe and the wider world c.1500-1900;
the military, political, cultural or social history of German-speaking Europe c.1500-1900.

I currently teach:

Prelims	FHS
	The Military and Society in Britain and France c.1650-1815
	The Thirty Years War (SS12)

Graduate Papers:

War in the Modern World

Professor Peter H Wilson

Featured Publications