The German Wars: A Concise History, 1866-1945

In the decades leading up to World War II, the world was in awe of the Prussian-German military, seeking to emulate what esteemed German military history scholar Robert M. Citino has termed “the German Way of War.” Military professionals around the globe became fluent in the tactical jargon: bewegungskrieg, schwerpunckt, auftragstaktik, fingerspitzengefuhl, and of course, blitzkrieg. At the same time, German warfare would become closely associated with the bloodiest and cruelest era in the history of mankind. The German Wars: A Concise History, 1859–1945 outlines the history of European warfare from the Wars of German Unification to the end of World War II. Author Michael A. Palmer looks at political, social, economic, and military developments across Europe and the United States during this crucial period in world history.

 The German wars would have a lasting impact in the modern age. As Palmer writes, these wars "brought to an end and revealed the shortcomings of the classical era of modern Western military thought. But the regressive slide toward premodern and primitive warfare, in combination with the fruits of the industrial and scientific revolutions, places the world on the edge of an abyss."

Michael A. Palmer, Ph.D., is chair of the history department at East Carolina University. Formerly he worked at the Naval Historical Center and was a field historian during the Persian Gulf War. During Operation Desert Shield he worked for the Chief of Naval Operations’ (OPNAV) Strategic Concepts Group in the Pentagon. He is an award-winning author of ten books.