Radetzky: Imperial Victor and Military Genius
'Brilliantly brings back to life the man who helped destroy Napoleon and preserved the Hapsburg Empire. An incisive study of a neglected military genius.' - John Charmley, Professor of Modern History, University of East Anglia;    'Reflecting the author's own  extensive researches in all the relevant European archives and his  comprehensive knowledge of the secondary literature, this biography of Radetzky - the first of its kind in English -  has all the qualities that will appeal to both students of nineteenth-century Europe and the general reader, being, while authoritative, both well paced and of a manageable length. In Alan Sked's view, Radetzky the soldier, was in fact a strategist who twice played the key role in 'saving Austria and Europe' (from Napoleon in 1813 and from the Revolution in 1848); he has also been underestimated as a military reformer and statesman and patronisingly disparaged as a man. The closing chapter, a detailed account of Radetzky's failure in the 1850s to manage Austria's increasingly problematical Italian inheritance is perhaps an unexpected bonus for students of the Risorgimento, here refreshingly illuminated 'from the other side'.' - F.R. Bridge, Emeritus Professor of Diplomatic History, University of Leeds