“Blood and Iron: From Bismarck to Hitler, the Von Moltke Family’s Impact on German History”, by Otto Friedrich

 

434 pages, HarperCollins Publishers, ISBN-13: 978-0060168667

Say, I betcha you thought that a book with “blood and iron” in the title was about Otto von Bismarck, dincha? Well, don’t feel bad ‘cause I thought the same thing when I picked up Otto Friedrich’s Blood and Iron and had to read the subtitle From Bismarck to Hitler, the Von Moltke Family’s Impact on German History to figure out its true subject. The book traces three generations of Von Moltkes: from the famed Generalfeldmarschall Helmuth Karl Bernhard, Graf von Moltke, whose mighty Prussian and allied armies whipped the French and united Germany; to Helmuth Johannes Ludwig, Graf von Moltke, who failed to win the First World War in its opening weeks; to Helmuth James, Graf von Moltke, who was arrested and executed as a resister to Adolf Hitler. The book is well-written and contains a strong narrative for all three subjects, with the second von Moltke receiving the fewest pages (as he is the least interesting?).

Helmuth Carl Bernhard von Moltke – Moltke der Ältere – is presented in all of his military glory as the founder of the modern German military and the reformer of the General Staff system, and Friedrich traces his rise in the Prussian officer corps then illustrates his brilliance as he participated in and directed the three wars of German unification in the 19^th Century. Meanwhile, Helmuth Johannes Ludwig von Moltke – Moltke der Jüngere – is described as “The Nervous Nephew” for his indecision at the outbreak of World War One; his reluctance to take up the mantle held by his uncle as Chief of the General Staff is considered by the author, as is the disaster that occurred on the Marne in 1914 after the Kaiser insisted that he do so (while one feels profound admiration for the first von Moltke, it is hard to feel nothing but pity for his nephew). Lastly, Helmuth James von Moltke deserves a place alongside Stauffenberg, Scholl and all of the other brave resisters to Hitler’s tyranny. The evolution of Moltke’s opposition to the Nazi regime is chronicled, as is his eventual discovery and arrest. Friedrich offers with sympathy and awe a man driven by conscience and Christian duty to resist Nazism and help plan for a future without Hitler.

In short, there would be no Germany today as we know it without the von Moltke Family: their personal history is the history of the rise and fall of this nation, and Friedrich’s style is so fluid and engaging that the dead come to life, the scenes from all across Europe emerge. If you want to understand modern German history, this is a good place to start.

“Waterloo: New Perspectives; The Great Battle Reappraised”, by David Hamilton-Williams, forward by The Marquess of Anglesey

 

416 pages, John Wiley & Sons, ISBN-13: 978-0471145714

In his book Waterloo: New Perspectives; The Great Battle Reappraised, David Hamilton-Williams draws unorthodox yet reasonable conclusions about les Cent-Jours campaign, not least of which posits that Waterloo was lost due to the incompetence of Napoleon Bonaparte’s subordinates and not the failures of Napoleon himself, a suggestion that does not lack merit. When he returned from Elba, Napoleon was faced with grave disadvantages, some self-wrought and others unavoidable. Most decisive, argues Hamilton-Williams, was the loss of Maréchal Louis-Alexandre Berthier, Napoleon’s long time Chief of Staff (who evidently chose suicide to rejoining his former chief). Without Berthier’s gift of clear translation of Napoleon’s often garbled and confusing verbal orders, the cogs of the French military machine began to fall apart and grave miscommunications occurred, which led to the ultimate downfall of the French Empire at Waterloo. The other disadvantage worthy of recap was the loss of Marshal Murat, Bonaparte’s brilliant cavalry captain, for it was his absence that forced Napoleon to rely on the Bravest of the Brave, Maréchal Michel Ney, to command his cavalry, which resulted in useless charge after useless charge and was one of the many reasons the Corsican ultimately ended up on St. Helena. But there is more to Waterloo, such as Hamilton-Williams’ answers to several questions that, to my knowledge, no other author has thus far addressed:

• Why did Picton die crying, “Rally the Highlanders”?
• How did a few companies of British Guards hold Hougamont against most of a French corps?
• Why did the French Army fall apart and flee for their lives when the Middle Guard was repulsed, yet most could not see farther than twenty feet on the smoke filled battle field? (could it have had something to do with Ziethen’s advance?)
• Did Napoleon really lie about Maréchal Emmanuel de Grouchy’s arrival, or did the attack by the Prussians on the Nassau forces on Wellington’s left make him think Grouchy truly had arrived?

Until at least one other author addresses these questions, I submit that Hamilton-Williams is the man to read (not to mention the fact that his commentary reads like an adventure story and his account of the battle is quite simply the best so far written by anyone). This book belongs in any serious military history collection and truly does offer a new perspective, as any history that takes a new look at old tired accounts (especially accounts that have a national bias) deserves an airing, perhaps because the main thrust of the author’s account is that he relied on first person correspondence from all participants in the battle.

“Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet”, by Karen Armstrong

 

290 pages, HarperCollins, ISBN-13: 978-0062500144

Ah, Karen Armstrong, former Nun, current scold of all things Christian and Western and excuser of all things Islamic and Eastern. In Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet, we get more of the same, as the history of Islam is white-washed (ahem) while the West is excoriated for misunderstanding it. This book swerves from history to political ranting and excuse-making. I was taught that history is not about presenting your information from a biased standpoint, to make things look better than they were, or try to convince you of this history as being right or even wrong; it was about researching the facts and presenting them in an unbiased fashion, though the heavens fall. While Muhammad is not quite a whitewash of the man’s life, it is extraordinarily selective in what it reports and what it ignores (it seems that every time she records a less-than-noble action of Muhammad, she always tries to put the best spin possible on the same). A prime example is of his retreat from his original position of full equality for women in society; the only end view one can take away from Muhammad here is either a henpecked husband leading to his first advocating women’s equality, or a male herd-follower after changing his mind.

Armstrong’s biography is also strongly biased in its lack of criticality; there’s no sense of scholarship in the way of historical-critical wrestling with either the Quran itself or the later Hadith about Muhammad. It must, however, be said that Armstrong is candid about her objective: to make Muhammad and Islam palatable to us Westerners whose “prejudice” has prevented them from honestly assessing one of the world’s great religions. I, for one, am afraid that her objective is likely to be realized, and that lazy American readers will accept her version of Islam as an accurate and “enlightened” view, thereby relieving themselves of the need to actually READ the Quran and other, more objective commentaries on the life of Muhammad.

“Empire of the Sultans: Ottoman Art from the Khalili Collection”, by J.M. Rogers

304 pages, Art Services International, ISBN-13: 978-0883971321 

The Turkish holdings in the Khalili Collection constitute the most comprehensive collection of Ottoman art outside of Turkey, with examples from the 15^th to the early 20^th Centuries, the Collection being especially strong on calligraphy, providing an important corrective to the Western view of Ottoman art as consisting principally of ceramics and textiles. Empire of the Sultans: Ottoman Art from the Khalili Collection is the official book on the exhibition which opened at the Musée Rath, Geneva, in 1995 and was then shown at the Brunei Gallery, London, and the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, in 1996-97. The American tour of the exhibition covered 13 venues between 2000 and 2004. Sadly, I missed every event as I wasn’t even aware that the thing was going on, so I have to make do with this book, which I picked up for a pittance at the Detroit Institute of Arts when the gift shop did a purge of old books that didn’t sell. It is what it is: a companion work to the pieces that were shown at the exhibitions, with brilliant photographs and descriptions of each object – and, being what it is, it is a flat, academic description of that which is hard to describe (Want to kill a desire for art? Get an art historian to write about it). Seriously, if you can find one of these, buy it for the pretty pictures and skip the dry-as-parchment writing, and mediate on what a bummer it is to have missed the real thing.