Halt In The Mud

Compare retailer offers

About this product

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

More from Taylor & Francis Ltd