Professor Peter H Wilson
Chichele Professor of the History of War
All Souls College
Professor Wilson research interests are centred on the impact of war in European and World Development, as well as the history of the Holy Roman Empire.
Publications
Iron and Blood: A Military History of the German-speaking Peoples Since 1500
For most of its existence German-speaking Europe has been splintered into innumerable states - some substantial (such as Austria and Prussia) and some consisting of just a few Alpine meadows. Its military experience has also been extraordinarily varied: threatened and threatening; a mere buffer-zone, and a global threat. Iron and Blood is a startlingly ambitious and absorbing book. It encompasses five centuries of political, military, technological and economic change to tell the story of the German-speaking lands, from the Rhine to the Balkan frontier, from Switzerland to the North Sea.
DPhil Students
I would like to hear from potential DPhil students regarding:
- war in Europe and the wider world c.1500-1900;
- the military, political, cultural or social history of German-speaking Europe c.1500-1900.
In the Media
26 May 2025 - Europe's Tragedy: The Thirty Years War - History Hit
April 2023 - The best books about German military history that say something different - Shepherd
11 April 2023 - Peter H. Wilson on the Military History of the German-Speaking Peoples - School of War with Aaron MacLean Podcast
13 March 2023 - Inside The War Room: Iron and Blood: A Military History of the German-Speaking Peoples since 1500 - Inside the War Room with Ryan Ray Podcast
19 February 2023 - Iron and Blood: Germans on the March - History Happy Hour, episode 133
28 April 2021 - Heinrich, Hans and the Thirty Years War - Marian Consort
5 March 2021 - The Thirty Years War – Everything you wanted to know - BBC History Magazine
5 December 2018 - The Thirty Years War - BBC Radio 4, In Our Time