Michael Hochedlinger

What you have here is an extended analysis of how the Austrian Habsburgs tried to weld together their variegated possessions into a centralized state, with varying degrees of success, as the parts acquired by the renowned dynastic tactics of the House of Austria never quite crystalized into a coherent whole. This means that the title is something of a misnomer, in that this book is more a study of state-building and creating military institutions under the threat of disaster in war, and less about warfare at anything much below the level of strategic analysis. This is all well and good, and you will learn a great deal about the military travails of the House of Austria, but the author is at his best writing about events up to about the Seven Years War. When Hochdelinger extends his coverage into the period of the French Revolution, the analysis seems a bit perfunctory, even if it does extend his overview of the process by which those European powers able to centralize power could then partake of the spoils, as the statelets and shambling conglomerations of the late-medieval world were swept from the stage of history. If nothing else the author gives you a good survey of the secondary sources that are available to advanced student, and suggests where further research is most needed.… (meer)