Robert Citino's book is a very good compendium of the art of making war according to the Prussian-Germans, from the 17th century to the 20th. The common thread that links all the wars of the Prussian and later German state during that time period is a basic concept, called "Bewegungskrieg" in German, or more or less translated as "war of movement" in English.

This concept does in fact recovers a number of other aspects, as the war of movement aims at attacking the flank or rear of the enemy, in order to keep the wars short and lively (kurz and vives), and done through Auftragstaktic, or flexible command.

Citino's analyzes highlights of the major Prussian-German wars during three centuries to demonstrate these most important aspects of the German war-making, and also shows how the Germans usually got defeated when they could not fight their wars as per this model. His writing is fluid enough considering the dry topic, and he especially pays attention to the human factor by describing in details the actual impact of specific personalities on the evolution of this art of war, starting from the Great Elector, going through Frederick the Great, Moltke, Schlieffen, and Guderian to name a few.

Recommended reading for anyone with an interest in the history of European wars. ( )