This is a tremendous book. It covers the military history of the German-speaking peoples (defined as Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) over the last approximately 500 years. It is not a narrow war/battle book. Each of the sections, which cover about 100 years, gives an overview of the conflicts during the period of interest, but then discusses governments and how military decisions are made, military technology, recruitment of forces, how finances were handled, and the sociology of the military forces and polities. There are subsection titles like "Welfare, Medical Care, and Mortality" and "The Politics of Recruitment." The book has 763 pages of text (including the Introduction), 20 excellent maps (which are not well integrated into the text), and 36 figures (which appear fairly random). I counted 1598 end notes spread over 73 pages. The end notes are almost, but not completely, references and citations. There are a very few clarifying/amplifying end notes. The end notes are not separated, but use a run on format. I have a few nits. The text seems to strongly imply that the fortress of Przemysl fell in a siege starting in September 1914, when it was relieved in October and then later rebesieged (not only did the Austrians not resupply the fortress, they took some of its its supplies for field forces). Wilson refers to US troops in the 1970s as occupiers, when occupation is usually considered to have ended in the 1950's. Finally, Wilson sometimes presents his conclusions was facts. Given the 1598 end notes, I suspect he is largely correct in his conclusions, but my personal preference is to be given facts (which he certainly does give) and be permitted to draw my own conclusions. This is a very valuable book, but be warned that is is extremely dense in information. Although very well written, this is not a quick and easy read.