A CONTINENT'S CALAMITY

BOOK REVIEW: Peter Wilson, The Thirty Years War: Europe's Tragedy (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap-Harvard, 2009). xxii + 997 pp.

I have been reading this book a long time. That is not only because of its length though, at over 850 pages of core text, it is substantial in terms of heft. It is rather because I started it a couple of years ago with a reading buddy, then life intervened ... and finally I was just determined to finish it up. And I'm glad that I did, all things considered, because it has added to my understanding of European history, in particular that swath bounded by Luther's 95 Theses (1517) on the one hand, and the dawn of the Enlightenment on the other. There is of course also the relevance for church history of this conflict, defined as it was -- at least in its public relations -- as a war between Protestants and Roman Catholics, though of course it was not that simple. Yet it was probably more purely an expression of religious conflict in military terms than were even the Crusades (given Saladin's predilection for alliances of convenience with European nobles, and the Crusaders' own squabbles and attacks against the Greek Orthodox and against Jews in what was ostensibly a fight against Islam).

That said, this book is rather a tough read, and not because the subject is especially difficult -- though a war with the span of a generation and a half is bound to be somewhat confusing to relate.

Wilson's account is very comprehensive in what it does. It is in the main a military-political history, with the emphasis on the former. However, any wider interpretive framework is rather minimal, though he relates some good stories and concludes with a chapter which purports to make some larger sense out of the whole epoch. On the other hand, it is not really a reference work. Even the maps, sprinkled throughout the text to give a sense of major engagements, give a sense of little more than general geographic position and topography, and the aggregate movements of the armies.

There were several insights to be gained, at least for me, from reading the book.

One, the role of Sweden as a spoiler on the continent. The muscle-flexing of the Swedes in this conflict really set the stage for their engagements with Peter the Great's Russia not a century later, which brought about the beginning of the end of Swedish hegemony in northern European affairs. At the same time, the importance of ties between Sweden and some of the German states -- also Lutheran Protestants -- begins to become clearer ... ties which will be important through Sweden's trade assistance to the German's economic militarism in both world wars.

Speaking of the Swedes, Gustavus' daughter and heir, Queen Christiana, emerges as a truly remarkable and underrated personage in Europe's modern history. From Wilson's telling, one begins to wonder whether there might have been some gender ambiguity with her (more so than with other "mannish" female monarchs, such as Russia's Tsarina Anna Petrovna).

Two, the financial ruin which the war brought upon most of the participating states. A cautionary tale which bears retelling with each generation.

Third, the role, not only of the Roman Church (i.e., the Pope), but of key ecclesiastics in positions of power and influence, such as Richelieu and Mazarin in France.

Fourth, the political, moral, and cultural catastrophe which is war. Spain's heavy and calamatous investment in the conflict proved to be a major contributor to her undoing as a European power ... even as France's insertion into the U.S. War for Independence provoked the crisis which brought down the Bourbon dynasty. The strong European allergy to religiously-delineated conflict, meanwhile, continues today: in Germany and the Netherlands through the legal and social expectation of mutual tolerance; in France, under the guise of secularism. Meanwhile, regions less touched by the heat of conflict -- at least, directly -- have been historically able to give in to their particular brand of chauvinism: Austria, Poland, Spain, Russia, to name four.

Wilson's tome is expert in its detailed accounts of the battles and metatrends. He is not especially interested in the history of ideas; but there are clues to this for the serious researcher who wishes to follow up for more. There's not a lot on personalities beyond monarchs and key military leaders -- this also would have made the book more useful, interesting, and less one-dimensional. More on everyday life would have been helpful as well.

I certainly learned a bit from this book; what was largely a shadowy period in my mind now has some definition and some gaps in my understanding of the flow of European history during the period between the Reformation and the Enlightenment have been filled in. Still, with the lacking cohesive narrative I could not recommend this as a useful book for the average student, which is a shame because otherwise it is a good resource.


Prince Frederick, Maryland (Providence)