Peter H. Wilson

Chichele Professor of the History of War Peter H Wilson, Professor PhD

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. In a major reassessment, Wilson argues that religion was not the catalyst,but one element in a lethal stew of political, social, and dynastic forces that fed the conflict--a conflict that ultimately transformed the map of the modern world.

Europe's Tragedy

The Thirty Years War

The Holy Roman Empire lasted a thousand years, far longer than ancient Rome. Its continuity rested on the ideal of a unified Christian civilization. As Peter Wilson shows, the Empire tells the story of Europe better than histories of individual nation-states, and its legacy can be seen today in debates over the nature of the European Union.

A History of the Holy Roman Empire

Heart of Europe

THE SUNDAY TIMES AND ECONOMIST BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2016 'Hugely impressive... Wilson is an assured guide through the millennium-long labyrinth of papal-imperial relations' Literary Review 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. In this strikingly ambitious book, Peter H. Wilson explains how the Empire worked. It is not a chronological history, but an attempt to convey to readers why it was so important and how it changed over its existence. The result is a tour de force - a book that raises countless questions about the nature of political and military power, about diplomacy and the nature of European civilization and about the legacy of the Empire, which has continued to haunt its offspring, from Imperial and Nazi Germany to the European Union.

A Thousand Years of Europe's History

The Holy Roman Empire

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. In a major reassessment, Wilson argues that religion was not the catalyst, but one element in a lethal stew of political, social, and dynastic forces that fed the conflict--a conflict that ultimately transformed the map of the modern world.

A New History of the Thirty Years War

A Military History of the German-Speaking Peoples

Iron and Blood

A startling, subversive novel about a teenage girl who has lost everything and will burn anything. Fourteen-year-old Lucia is a young narrator whose voice will long ring in your ears. She is angry with almost everyone, especially people who tell her what to do. She follows the one rule that makes any sense to her: Don't Do Things You Aren't Proud Of. Orphaned and living with her elderly aunt in poverty in the converted garage of a large mansion, Lucia makes her way through the world with only a book, a Zippo lighter, and a pocket full of stolen licorice. Expelled from school, again, Lucia spends her days riding the bus to visit her mother in The Home. When Lucia discovers a secret Arson Club, she will do anything to be a part of it. Her own arson manifesto is a marvellous anarchist pamphlet, written with biting wit and striking intelligence. The voice of teenaged Lucia is a tour de force: a brilliant, wrenching cry from the heart and mind of a super-smart, funny girl who can't help telling us the truth, a riveting chronicle of family, misguided friendship, and loss. How to Set a Fire and Whyis Jesse Ball's most accessible novel yet; after Silence Once Begunand A Cure for Suicide, the pyrotechnics on display here will dazzle. 'I was captivated from the first line...... Lucia belongs with all the great child truth tellers: David Copperfield, Huck Finn, Holden Caulfield...... I loved her and I loved the book, every page of it.' Peter Heller, author of The Dog Stars andThe Painter

Desde su fundación con Carlomagno hasta su destrucción, un milenio más tarde, a manos de Napoleón, el Sacro Imperio Romano Germánico, una entidad vasta y en constante expansión, tan antigua como única, formó el corazón de Europa. Motor de invenciones e ideas, estuvo en el origen de muchos de los Estados modernos europeos, desde Alemania a la República Checa, y sus relaciones con Italia, Francia y Polonia dictaron el curso de incontables guerras. La historia europea no tendría sentido sin él. En este sorprendentemente ambicioso libro, Peter H. Wilson aborda la tarea ingente de explicar el funcionamiento del Imperio no desde un punto de vista cronológico, sino en un titánico ejercicio expositivo en el que demuestra su trascendental importancia, y cómo el Imperio mutó a lo largo del tiempo. El resultado es un tour de force, un libro que eleva innumerables cuestiones sobre la naturaleza de su poder político y militar, sobre la diplomacia y la esencia de la civilización europea y sobre el legado del Sacro Imperio Romano Germánico, que durante generaciones ha perseguido y obsesionado a sus vástagos, desde la Alemania imperial y nacionalsocialista hasta la Unión Europea. Ganador Libro del año en 2016 en Sunday Times Ganador Libro del año en 2016 en The Economist

Mil años de historia de Europa

El Sacro Imperio Romano Germánico

An edited and annotated collection of translated documents on the Thirty Years War, providing students with accessible source material on this destructive conflict. Covering all aspects of the war from a variety of contemporary perspectives, it brings together an exciting range of material from treaties to literature to eyewitness accounts.

A Sourcebook

Europe was swept by a wave of revolution in 1848 that had repercussions stretching well beyond the Continent. Governments fell in quick succession or conceded significant reforms, before being rolled back by conservative reaction. Though widely perceived as a failure, the revolution ended the vestiges of feudalism, broadened civil society and strengthened the state prior to the rapid industrialisation and urbanisation of the latter part of the nineteenth century. This volume brings together essays from leading specialists on the international dimension, national experiences, political mobilisation, reaction and legacy.

The Year of Revolutions

1848

La Guerra de los Treinta Años desgarró el corazón de Europa entre 1618 y 1648: una cuarta parte de la población alemana murió entre violencias, hambrunas y pestes, regiones enteras de Europa central fueron devastadas en un incesante recorrer de ejércitos, y muchas tardaron décadas en recuperarse. Todas las grandes potencias europeas del momento estuvieron involucradas en un conflicto que desbordó las líneas marcadas por la fe, con la pugna entre los Habsburgo y los Borbones dirimiendo el comienzo del ocaso de una gran potencia, la España imperial, contestada por la pujante Francia. El libro de Peter Wilson es la primera historia completa de la Guerra de los Treinta Años que se alumbra desde hace más de una generación, en un relato brillante y fascinante, de unos años de acero que definieron después de la Paz de Westfalia el escenario europeo hasta la Revolución francesa. La gran fortaleza de La Guerra de los Treinta Años. Una tragedia europea es que permite aprehender los motivos que empujaron a los diferentes gobernantes a apostar el futuro de sus países con tan catastróficos resultados. Wallenstein, Fernando II, Gustavo Adolfo, Richelieu u Olivares, personajes fascinantes, están aquí presentes, como también lo está la terrible experiencia de los soldados y civiles anónimos, que trataron desesperadamente de mantener vida y dignidad en circunstancias imposibles. La Guerra de los Treinta Años. Una tragedia europea se divide, dada su enjundia y su amplitud, en dos partes, la primera dedicada a las conocidas como fases bohemia y danesa del conflicto, hasta 1630; y la segunda, de próxima aparición, que arranca con la irrupción sueca y culmina con la postrera intervención francesa. En esta primera parte conocemos los antecedentes y los orígenes del conflicto, que comienza con la revuelta bohemia y el efímero Rey de Invierno, el elector palatino Federico V, vencido en la Montaña Blanca, frente a Praga, y cuyas tierras en Alemania serán conquistadas por los ejércitos de España y de la Liga Católica alemana. Vencido y exiliado el palatino, la obra de Wilson se adentra en los orígenes de la rivalidad entre Richelieu y Olivares, germen de la ulterior intervención gala, y plasma la fracasada intervención danesa en el norte del Sacro Imperio, sellada con una paz de Lübeck que deja a Fernando II como gran triunfador, para abordar por último la amenaza inminente de una guerra general en el continente, que no tardaría en hacerse realidad. Ganador del Society for Military History Distinguished Book Award 2011

Una tragedia europea (1618-1630)

La Guerra de los Treinta Años I

This Companion contains 31 essays by leading internationalscholars to provide an overview of the key debates oneighteenth-century Europe. Examines the social, intellectual, economic, cultural, andpolitical changes that took place throughout eighteenth-centuryEurope Focuses on Europe while placing it within its internationalcontext Considers not just major western European states, but also theoften neglected countries of eastern and northern Europe

A Companion to Eighteenth-Century Europe

Erica Charters

Marie Houllemare

This electronic version has been made available under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) open access license. This is the first extensive analysis of large-scale violence and the methods of its restraint in the early modern world. Using examples from Asia, Africa, the Americas and Europe, it questions the established narrative that violence was only curbed through the rise of western-style nation states and civil societies. Global history allows us to reframe and challenge traditional models for the history of violence and to rethink categories and units of analysis through comparisons. By decentring Europe and exploring alternative patterns of violence, the contributors to this volume articulate the significance of violence in narratives of state- and empire-building, as well as in their failure and decline, while also providing new means of tracing the transition from the early modern to modernity.

A global history of early modern violence

Alan Forrest

This volume's juxtaposition of the empires of Germany and France in 1806, at the dissolution of The Holy Roman Empire, allows a comparison of their transition towards modernity, explored through the themes of Empire, monarchy, political cultures, feudalism, war and military institutions, nationalism and identity, and everyday experience.

Peter H. Wilson

Books

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