Charles XI’s War: The Scanian War Between Sweden and Denmark, 1675-1679 (Century of the Soldier)

This is a great military history book. Great maps, discussion of arms, armour and tactics. There is so little information about Scandinavian history, other than the viking age, in English. Military history in the later 17th century is generally scarce so a book on both this time period and Scandinavia is very interesting.This war was also interesting because it was the last hurrah for pikemen in Denmark and Norway (which were the same kingdom at the time).More military history books need to be this detailed, giving weapons and maps. One pet peve of mine is military history where they don't actually discuss weapons used during the war or what the soldiers looked like.I will definitely buy more in the series.

This book is aimed at military historians. The author gives blow-by-blow descriptions of the battles (e.g. The Swedish left flank charged the Danish right flank early in the morning.) whenever he has the information to do so. The appendices included somewhat detailed listings of which units commanded by which officers were in the battles. How many foot soldiers, cavalry, and artillery each side had and each side are noted. Eight color plates show some uniforms, equipment, and colors. Background information is to help understand how and why the war got started. Particular attention is paid to the motivation, personality, and military competence of King Charles of Sweden and King Christian of Denmark. The strategic importance of each encounter is discussed. The Battle of Lund gets a particularly detailed treatment. About eight maps (at some point the numbering of the maps stops matching the numbering given in the text) are helpful. There are many, many illustrations, mostly from nearly contemporary paintings and etchings. Some things, such as the burning of Örkened by Nils Skytte in 1678, are not mentioned, but the overall impression is that this is a comprehensive study.The book is printed on high quality paper--one might even say the book is lavishly produced. A few typos and some awkward phrasing are not enough to significantly detract. Anyone interested in the Scanian War, or more generally what war was like in the late 1600s, should consider this highly recommended book.

As another reviewer has noted, this book provides a very detailed military history of this conflict. Its particular strength is that, through translation, it provides English-speaking readers access to some of the historical records and modern scholarship only available in the Scandinavian languages. The one issue, however, is that its "reading" of these sources demonstrates a bias towards the Swedish point of view: all defeats suffered by the Swedish armies are due to forces beyond control or treasonous actions by Swedish commanders, while all victories are due to the brilliance of Swedish leadership. This results in the accounts of battles won by Danish or German armies sometimes being glossed over, while battles won by the Swedes are discussed in meticulous detail. Nonetheless, this is the best - and perhaps the only- detailed treatment of this conflict available in English

Great volume on a much neglected topic. I’ve read several books on the Great Northern War, but this is this first English language book I’ve found covering the Scanian War. Great book.

Very inteesting

BEM ESCRITO - ILLUSTRADO - MUITE INTERESSANTE

Finalmente un libro ben fatto e dettagliato su questa guerra poco conosciuta in special modo a chi non sia del Nord Europa. Lo consiglio vivamente.