The Battle of Königgrätz: Prussia's Victory over Austria, 1866

After reading this book, it is clear why this is considered one of the most important battles of the modern era. And, this book does an excellent job of laying out each element of the battle, including the lead up, and the major and minor events. If you like military history, I highly recommend this book. Just think, what the impact would have been on modern history if Austrian had won this battle.

Excellently written by an author who really knows how to get to his main point, and tell a story well. This book gives a large scale, strategic account of the campaign, not the type of regimental history that many writers of the American Civil War tend to deliver. But I prefer this approach. The best anecdote from the book is when Von Moltke proudly proclaims certain victory to the king in the middle of battle. After poor decisions, the Austrian general is able to rally his troops to prevent complete disaster, but still loses his reputation. Great book, highly recommended.

This is a good discussion of the campaign in Bohemia in the summer of 1866. Craig does a fine job of blending primary scourge material into his narrative, which is lively and engaging. His maps are very helpful to readers to help them visualize events.

Excellent Book,

This book is the single text that got me interested in Prussian militarism and General von Moltke who figures largely in this account. If you are interested in this period of history for academic reasons or are writing some kind of paper, I recommend this book wholeheartedly. There is one caveat, however, that I must bring up and that is that this book assumes that the reader has at least a moderate knowledge of Imperial German and military history.I took some time and researched some of the primary sources used in this book and Craig was spot on in his use of them. In a time of increasing specialization (and less competence) in Academia; Gordon Craig shows that it was the great men of history who changed it.

Before I read this book I knew nothing about this battle. After I now could see a wargame based upon. Did not know the historical importance of this battle or the people involved. Try this book and see for yourself

The great victory by Prussia over Austria. Tells how the battle could have gone in favor of the Austrians.

A must read for any student of the wars of German unification.

This was not the first account of the Battle of Sadowa (Koniggratz) that I have read, so I approached it with some suspicion. This was simply because it is older than, say, Geoffrey Wawro's account, and I have got used to endless de-bunking in nineteenth century military history.Actually, this is the best written, best paced and best illustrated account (modern or contemporary) of both the campaign and the battle. By illustration, I don't mean pictures, I mean maps. A real bug bear of mine is the way recent books leave out all but the simplest maps! This edition has eleven maps. These are modern ones done in an oldish style. This is just like the text - modern ideas in an oldish font!Don't write this book off. Don't rely on Wawro or chapters in books not dedicated to the subject. Wawro is extending and expressing a thesis. Craig is actually trying to shed light on what happened. Both are valuable and complement the others' approach. It does help to read Craig first though, so that one has a clear grasp of the issues, the landscape and the troop movements. I warn you that Wawro will muddy these for you otherwise.

A very clear account of this episode. I could not put it down.I gave 4 stars because of various printing errors e.g - ` Ausrtalians` instead of Austrians; `Brandanburg` instead of Brandenburg. Lousy proof reding I suppose.

Written in the late sixties, this is the classic text on this subject. Professor Craig examines not only the battle itself but all the combats leading up to it, the causes of the war and the consequences of the result. The style is extremely readable and the diagrams - it would be misleading to describe them as maps - are easy to follow for the lay reader. If you are looking for an introduction to this era of European history then look no further.

Very detailed account of this Historical event .