ABSTRACT
Accounts of mid-eighteenth-century warfare commonly centre on discussion of the campaigns of Frederick the Great. This is understandable because he was an important commander, his army a formidable military machine, and Prussia a militarized society. Furthermore, it was through war that Prussia challenged Austria’s position in the Empire (Germany) and became a major state. As statebuilding was and is an important theme of the political aspects of military history, it was therefore appropriate that attention should be devoted to Frederick. He was also a prolific writer whose writings on war attracted subsequent attention; while the important rôle of German military historians in the late nineteenth century and their nationalist character lent further force to this focus.
