Peter HofschrÖ¶er. LÖ¼tzen and Bautzen 1813: The Turning Point. Westport: Praeger, 2005. 96 pp. $18.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-275-98621-6.
Reviewed by Leighton James (Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies, University of York)
Published on H-German (May, 2006)
The Turning of the Tide
Lützen and Bautzen 1813: The Turning Point is the latest book from the prolific Napoleonic historian Peter Hofschröer. It builds upon his previous work on the Prussian soldiery and more recently his analysis of the Battle of Waterloo: 1815: The Waterloo Campaign: The German Victory: From Waterloo to the Fall of Napoleon (2004). The work provides a concise account of two battles, Lützen and Bautzen, which the author contends marked a turning point in the Napoleonic Wars. He argues they represented the last opportunity for Napoleon to reverse the retreat he began at Moscow. Defeat at Lützen and Bautzen coupled with the entry of Austria into the war tipped "the scale decisively against Napoleon" (p. 92).
The book is colorfully produced, packed with maps representing the movement of armies, many drawings of the common soldiery and photographs of the battlefields as they exist today. Hofschröer also includes portraits of the main military leaders together with potted biographies. The bulk of the work, however, is taken up by a detailed narrative of combat operations. Hofschröer first examines the number and composition of the French and Allied armies with a breakdown of regiments. He then looks at the opposing plans and movements of the troops before describing the initial skirmishes preceding the battles. Blow-by-blow accounts of the battles are given including the number of casualties sustained and the decisions of the different commanders.
What the book lacks is a sense of context. Only a couple of pages are given over to describing the background to the campaign and there is no real discussion of the wider impact of the Wars. Furthermore, although Hofschröer suggests that Austria's abandonment of its "wait-and-see" policy and eventual entry into the war against Napoleon was decisive, he does not examine in any depth why Austria initially avoided the war, despite having been involved in every other coalition, nor the political maneuvering involved in changing this stance. In other words, the book gives little sense of the interaction between high politics, diplomacy and warfare.
Arguably, the lack of a wider context is a natural consequence of the work's focus on two specific battles. Yet this very focus limits the appeal of the work. It will no doubt be of great interest to amateur historians of Napoleonic warfare and those with a detailed knowledge of the campaigns. However, it offers little for those interested in the wider effects of wars on society and politics. Moreover, the work is cast within a very traditional military history mould by concentrating on commanders' orders and troop movements. No attempt is made to explore the experience of the battles from the point of view of the common soldier.
Despite its detail and numerous illustrations, the book's specialist nature means that it is not suitable as an introductory text on the subject for university students. Students with an interest in the history of the Napoleonic Wars are better served by reading the relevant sections in general works such as The Napoleonic Wars, 1803-1815 by David Gates (1997), or The Wars of Napoleon by Charles Esdaile (1995), both of which take a wider view.
If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at: https://networks.h-net.org/h-german.
Citation:
Leighton James. Review of HofschrÖ¶er, Peter, LÖ¼tzen and Bautzen 1813: The Turning Point.
H-German, H-Net Reviews.
May, 2006.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=11774
Copyright © 2006 by H-Net, all rights reserved. H-Net permits the redistribution and reprinting of this work for nonprofit, educational purposes, with full and accurate attribution to the author, web location, date of publication, originating list, and H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online. For any other proposed use, contact the Reviews editorial staff at hbooks@mail.h-net.org.