This is by far the best book ever written on the Thirty Years war and this judge

ment is unlikely to change very soon. Wedgewood is one of the 20th century's dis
tiguished historians. This book was written and published during WWII and as suc
h this gives the works a sense of dramatic urgency. Wedgewood saw clear parallel
s between what happened in the 17th century and what was happening to Europe in
the 1940s. The Jesuits for example are referred to as "the storm troopers of the
counter-Reformation.Wedgewood's sympathies are clearly with the Protestants and
there is no doubt who the hero of the book is, Gustavus Adolphus, who is in nea
rly every way portrayed positively. That is not to say that this is a flaw with
the book, rather it is a strength. In these days of sprin doctors, it sometimes
seems difficult to realize that good press was sometimes earned and deserved.