Bismarck's War

The Franco-Prussian War and the Making of Modern Europe

By: Rachel Chrastil

Narrated by: Sarah Borges

Length: 17 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2023 Rachel Chrastil (P)2023 Basic Books

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.

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.

No breathing space in the narration

It's a good solid book overall, giving anecdotes from individuals involved in the war.
The narrator has good inflection and pronounces French flawlessly. My complaint is that there are no pauses. Natural speech and especially that of actors, leaves space for the reader to absorb what was said and take a break. The narration became tedious rather quickly. I could listen not much more than half an hour at a time.
That said, it's still a good and thorough book that makes its intended point.

Incredible

An incredible account of the Franco Prussian War. Sarah Borges made this this wonderfully written book by Rachel Chrastil even better. Dramatically read, perfect tone, and inflection. Perhaps the best I’ve ever heard.

Solid Overview on Looked-Over Topic

While I thought the subject matter was handled well, I felt that it read too much like a blandish university lecture series without an overall thrust to give it some oomph. Still though, if you’re interested in the topic it’s worth a listen. I found the lecturer to be a bit distracting at first but I got used to her.

Tiresome and biased

The title should have been a clue. Whatever Bismark's use of the Franco-Prussian War, and however darkly it may have reverberated through history, the French declared it, and certainly expected to win. At every turn, the Prussians are portrayed as conniving and a bit too unfairly competent, while the French flaws are viewed with sympathy. It is fine to have a point of view, but not to treat the reader/listener as a sucker.

It doesn't help that the narration is terrible. I guess she is trying to go for relatable and conversational, but it comes across as condescending. To her credit, I think that is in the text. But it makes it all the more painful to hear justifications for sham election and the torture death of a young noble (Chapter 4) during celebrations of a fake saint excused as rational behavior.

I was hoping to learn something about this era. And maybe I did. But I don't trust it because I felt myself actively correcting the bias. Sure, Germany turned out to be a disaster in the 20th century, but that should not cast a shadow over an era when the world wars were far in the future.

Nice cover.

It's rare I don't finish a book...

...but I didn't finish this one. The title of this book is "Bismarck's War," but by four hours in, he had barely been mentioned. The author spends very little time discussing the cause(s) of the war, to the point where I thought the story-telling was going to be non-linear and she'd come back to it. I'd skip this one.