Historians have traditionally seen Prussia as the creator of modern
strategic planning. The members of the Great General Staff in the
carmine-striped trousers have long received credit for perfecting
"off the shelf' plans for any contingency. In contrast, the French
have been depicted as effete martinets or feckless hussars,
fearless in battle but utterly unconcerned with such arcane matters
as national strategy. The French Army in the years following
Waterloo has been depicted as an institution mired in reactionary
politics, and the entire period of French military history from
1815 to 1870 has most often been seen as a "halt in the mud." But
in this important new book, Gary Cox demonstrates that
nineteenth-century French defense policy was much more dynamic and
creative than has been previously supposed. In The Halt in the Mud,
Cox illustrates that contrary to most generally held opinions,
France began formulating long-range strategic plans in the years
immediately following Waterloo. Carefully buttressing his thesis
with evidence gleaned from the French Army's own archives, Cox
argues that these plans were firmly rooted in the Napoleonic
conception of strategy and staff work and strongly influenced
French strategic planning all the way down to the outbreak of the
Great War. The author also analyzes the development of the crucial
rivalry between France and Germany in the years leading up to the
Franco-Prussian War. He traces the roots of this conflict, shows
the essential similarities in approach between early German and
French strategic planning, and then discusses why French and German
strategic planning methods diverged so fundamentally. The Halt in
the Mud fills an important gap in our understanding of how France
and her army prepared for war in the nineteenth century and sheds
new light on France's preparations for the Franco-Prussian War and
her reaction to the catastrophic defeat of 1870.
General
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