Bismarck's War

The Franco-Prussian War and the Making of Modern Europe

By: Rachel Chrastil

Narrated by: Sarah Borges

A new history of the war that toppled the French Empire, unified Germany, and set Europe on the path to World War I

Among the conflicts that convulsed Europe during the nineteenth century, none was more startling and consequential than the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871. Deliberately engineered by Prussian chancellor Otto von Bismarck, the war succeeded in shattering French supremacy, deposing Napoleon III, and uniting a new German Empire. But it also produced brutal military innovations and a precarious new imbalance of power that together set the stage for the devastating world wars of the next century.

In Bismarck’s War, historian Rachel Chrastil chronicles events on the battlefield in full, while also showing in intimate detail how the war reshaped and blurred the boundaries between civilian and soldier as the fighting swept across France. The result is the definitive history of a transformative conflict that changed Europe, and the history of warfare, forever.

Critic reviews

“Rachel Chrastil colorfully describes how the Franco-Prussian War destroyed the long European peace established after Napoleon's defeat in 1815. Beginning as a midsummer cabinet war between monarchs, one of them Napoleon's nephew, Bismarck's invasion of France bogged down in winter rain and snow, and became a rancorous war of peoples that kindled the inferno of World War I.”
—Geoffrey Wawro, author of The Franco-Prussian War and A Mad Catastrophe

Kind of hard to follow

The booked jumped around a bit chronologically and kind of made things hard to follow. Also for a book called Bismarck’s war, there is precious little about Bismarck.

Misleading title

The title suggests that we might get to know Bismarck and how he orchestrated the Franco-Prussian war. But this books narrative is definitely focused on France. The nation states that would become Germany get a solid chunk of the ‘B’ plot, but there is very little about Bismarck at all. I would be surprised if he showed up on more than 50 of the pages and even then his notice was minor. It’s a good overview of the conflict however. Just not the book on the intertwining mechanics that was bismarkian diplomacy that I was hoping for. “Napoleon the 3rd’s war” would have been a far more accurate title, especially considering the books assertions that his hubris was a driving factor in the wars outbreak.

Good history of war but limited

Good history of battles and French civilian campaigns but superficial in other areas. Prussia is credited with superior governance (Bismarck and Wilhelm I), better military leadership and training (Moltke, general staff, war college, division level), better military planning (faster German mustering of soldiers, German war plan vs French lack of plan), German deference of civil authority to military on battle field (Wilhelm and Bismarck left command of army to Moltke; Wilhelm ordered Moltke out of Bismarck’s sphere of diplomacy and armistice negotiations, all in line with recent lesson of Lincoln in US Civil War). But why did Prussia excel in all these areas? Little insight from author. Why was French military so poorly prepared for war? Why did French military and generals not adapt to lessons from US Civil War? How did France military and training change after the Franco-Prussian War? This is more a political than military history of the war. The PDF includes a couple maps but lacks diagrams of battles, comparisons of armaments, charts comparing each side’s potential vs actual forces. Performance is very good but sometimes too dramatic. Book could have been much better.

The performance of the reader.

The research was great but the story was incoherent and hard to follow. One at times became lost at what was going in the history.

Excellent performance, story not so much

Reader was very good. Very little about Bismarck. Book did not represent its title at all.