In recognition of the bicentennial of Schill's escapade, Sam A. Mustafa has produced an extremely impressive piece of historical scholarship that is as much a biography of Schill as an historiographical autopsy on the myths and legends that have since swirled about the Prussian major. . . . And as Mustafa's book is the first English-language monograph on Schill, a ... Read morewider array of readers will now have access to Schill's extraordinary journey not only through Westphalia in the spring of 1809, but also throughout German history in the centuries that followed.
Journal of Military History
Schill is now little more than a footnote to the history of the Napoleonic wars, but, as Sam A. Mustafa demonstrates in this engrossing and meticulously researched study, the 'long ride' was a journey rich in contemporary and retrospective meanings. This book is the first work in English to attempt a detailed reconstruction of the Schill campaign and the myths and memories that were subsequently woven around it. . . . The portrait of Schill that emerges is more subtle and textured than anything that can be found in the existing literature.
American Historical Review
In observing the bicentennial of von Schill's rebellion, Sam A. Mustafa has written an impressive piece of historical biography and an analysis of the historiography that followed. Through extensive research in more than half a dozen German archives, he brings von Schill to life for a wider audience with a lively narrative mixed with acute analysis. . . . This is a commendable piece of historical scholarship that is well worth reading.
The Past In Review
How did Schill, who had been an obscure thirty-year-old second lieutenant in the Queen's Dragoons when he was wounded at Auerstädt, become within two years the toast of Berlin society and the most visible and lionized popular symbol of Prussian resistance to Napoleon? Sam Mustafa's engaging book attempts to answer this question as it traces Schill's rise, literally, as a legend in his own time, to his martyrdom in 1809 as he attempted to ignite an uprising against French tyranny in Westphalia. . . . Mustafa does us a great service in his scholarly reestablishment of the importance of Schill's narrative in the story of German nationalism and patriotic culture. . . . Mustafa's book does leave us . . . with a compelling image, as embodied in the Schill legend, of a modern German nationalism: headless, peripatetic, protean.
Kevin Cramer
The Journal Of Central European History
Contextualizing its specific topic with the wider debates and events of 1809, this work restores Ferdinand von Schill to his legitimate place in myth and history as a central symbol of Prussia's War of Liberation against Napoleon. In the process Mustafa does a fine job of reconstructing the 'rebellion that never happened' as Prussia struggled to recover from Jena and Auerstaedt.
Dennis E. Showalter, Colorado College; author of Patton and Rommel: Men of War in the Twentieth Century Magnificent. . . . A work that transcends military history. This book is not merely about a minor Prussian military revolt against Napoleonic rule in 1809 but instead is a considerable contribution to German history writ large. The author has truly achieved a remarkable accomplishment of integrating genres in this work.
Michael V. Leggiere, Louisiana State University Show Less