Kinross, Stuart: Europe's Fate was at Stake

Volume 163 of the "From Reason to Revolution 17211815" series is the first comprehensive English-language study of the Prussian Field Marshal Count August Neidhardt von Gneisenau (17601831). Drawing on primary sources from archives and personal correspondence, as well as incorporating earlier German studiesincluding the seminal biographies by Georg Heinrich Pertz and Hans Delbrückthis work makes Gneisenaus contributions to the development of the Prussian army accessible to an English-speaking audience. It examines this evolution against the backdrop of his career as a practical soldier and military thinker, spanning the era from the army of Frederick the Great to the Waterloo campaign. The book guides the reader through the defeat by Napoleon in 1806 and the subsequent resistance, the reform of the Prussian army under French occupation up to 1812, and the Wars of Liberation (18131815), during which Gneisenau served as Chief of Staff alongside Prince Gebhard von Blücher. By breaking with the stereotypical portrayal of Gneisenau found in pre-1914 German literaturewhich depicted him as a dogmatist obsessed with decisive battles and the annihilation of the enemythe work reveals the pragmatic approach he adopted in the planning and conduct of strategy and operations.