Frederick The Great: A Military Life

by Christopher Duffy

For tactical and strategic ingenuity, for daring and ruthless determination and the capacity to inspire troops, Frederick the Great was without equal. In this detailed life of Old Fritz, Christopher Duffy, who has written widely on the army of Frederick and on the armies of his adversaries, Austria and Russia, has produced a definitive account of his military genius. "

Genres: History, Military History, Biography, 18th Century, Nonfiction, Military Fiction, European History

407 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1985

About the author

Christopher Duffy (born 1936) is a British military historian. Duffy read history at Balliol College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1961 with the PhD. Afterwards, he taught military history at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and the college of the British General Staff. He was secretary-general of the British Commission for Military History and vice-president of the History Society of Ireland. From 1996 to 2001, he was research professor at the De Montfort University, Leicester. Today he lives and works as a freelance author.

Duffy's special interest is the military history of the European modern age, in particular the history of the German, Prussian and Austrian armed forces. He is most famous for his writings about the Seven Years' War and especially Frederick the Great, which he called self-ironically "a product of the centuries-old British obsession with that most un-British of creatures". Duffy is fluent in six languages and has published some twenty books about military history topics, whereof several were translated into German.

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good analysis of Old Fritz & his successes & failures. Excellent on detail of his battles & the theories at the heart of his technique. Poor subordinates or his own mistakes causing a loss of tight command control could result in the famous oblique order attack being a disaster. Great to see a non-hagiographic treatment of this complex warrior & cultural aesthete who was as keen to admit his own mistakes as exploit those of his adversaries.

[Sean Chick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a detailed summation of Frederick's military life, including anecdotes, tactics, and a stirring narrative that lays bear a figure more complex than the "Old Fritz" of popular legends.

[Legens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant biography of Frederick's life as a soldier which highlights his daring and innovation as much as his stubbornness and his failures as a military organizer - having inherited Europe's most underrated army, he left his successor the most overrated one.
Duffy finds fair assessments of Frederick as a military innovator and skilled practitioner while also outlining his tactical and personal failings, all of that in excellent prose.
The 50 detailed maps show all operational and tactical aspects of Frederick's campaigns.

[Shaheer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book left me disappointed. The sections covering the Silesian and Seven Years wars were detailed and thorough, but seemed so hyperfocused on the battles themselves that it was dry reading. I realize I'm reading a military history, but it seems limiting to be so narrow in focus. For example, Duffy writes only two lines mentioning the resignation of Pitt and its impact on British policy, which must have affected how the continental war was being fought. In comparison, the beginning and end chapters, that looked more holistically at Frederick's upbringing, tactics, and impact, were much more interesting, and I felt I got a lot more out of them.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Military history of Frederick the Great. Good for describing the battles, but could use more context about how his life and experiences impacted his military decisions.