The Crimean War: 1853-1856

Description

Winfried Baumgart's masterful history of the Crimean War has been expanded and fully updated to reflect advances made in the field since the book's first publication. It convincingly argues that if the war had continued after 1856, the First World War would have taken place 60 years earlier, but that fighting ultimately ceased because diplomacy never lost its control over the use of war as an instrument in power politics. With 19 images, 13 maps and additional tables as well as a brand new chapters on 'the medical services', this expanded and fully-updated 2nd edition explores * The origins and diplomacy of the Crimean War * The war aims and general attitudes of the belligerent powers (Russia, France, and Britain), non-belligerent German powers (Austria and Prussia) and a selected number of neutral powers, including the United States * The characteristics and capabilities of the armies involved * The nature of the fighting itself The Crimean War: 1853-1856 examines the conflict in both its Europe-wide and global contexts, moving beyond the five great European powers to consider the role and importance of smaller states and theatres of war that have otherwise been under-served. To this end, it looks at fighting on the Danube front, the Black Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Caucasian battlefield, as well as the White Sea and the Pacific, with final chapters devoted to the Paris peace congress of 1856, the end of the war and its legacy. This book remains the definitive study of one of the most important wars in modern history.

Winfried Baumgart is Professor Emeritus at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany. He is the author of 31 books in German and English, including Imperialism: The Idea and Reality of British and French Colonial Expansion, 1880-1914 (1982) and The Peace of Paris, 1856: Studies in War Diplomacy and Peacemaking (1981).

This informative book ... provides a clear and accessible overview of the Crimean War ... [It] is particularly effective in helping readers understand the war from the perspectives of the various powers involved, aided by a helpful bibliography accompanying each chapter. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students and faculty. * CHOICE * This book will be invaluable for courses on 19th century Europe, military history, and Balkan history. Baumgart is to be commended for blending diplomatic, international, military, political, and medical history within a succinct and highly readable text. * Jonathan Grant, Professor of History, Florida State University, USA * Baumgart's expert command of sources in many languages--German, Russian, French, English, Italian to name a few--gives rare depth to one of the most pivotal wars of the modern era and the work integrates the latest research to provide one of the most balanced accounts in the field. A revised classic, The Crimean War will retain its touchstone status for years to come. * Mara Kozelsky, Associate Professor of History, University of South Alabama, USA * This second and enlarged edition of Baumgart's The Crimean War offers a magisterial survey ... Baumgart's mastery of the sources allows him to offer an analysis of the course of events that is nuanced and aware of the appropriate contexts ... excellent and strongly to be recommended. * Slavonic and East European Review *