New History Of The Thirty Years War Released

Yesterday the Sunday Times carried an excellent review of Peter Wilson’s soon to be published book “Europe's Tragedy”.



The review itself is excellent but what’s really striking is the comparison made with C V Wedgewood’s seminal history of the war:

“From time to time I subjected his text to the ultimate comparative test, by laying his battle-scene descriptions of, say, Breitenfeld, ­Nördlingen and Rocroi alongside the accounts of the same actions in CV Wedgwood’s utterly sublime work, The Thirty Years’ War (1938), which that precocious young woman composed as the clouds of another devastating war hung over Europe. Nobody in our ­modern age can write as wonderfully as she did, but Wilson’s battle narratives are just fine. So are his accounts of high politics and diplomacy.”

Paul Kennedy - Sunday Times, 19th July 2009

Wedgewood’s book has long been a favourite of mine so this is high praise indeed.  If truth be told I’ve bought slip cased Folio Society copies of her books on the ECW and the TYW I liked her writing so much.  Anyway I digress.

Imagine my joy when I found that Amazon have the new book on pre-order for £21.00 against a RRP of £35.00.   I’ve ordered my copy, however it may be sometime before I’m able to post a review: the book is over 1,000 pages.

Updated: Fri, 31 Jul 2009

My copy arrived yesterday and I was pleased to see that the price had fallen to £19.20 under Amazon’s pre-order guarantee scheme.