What do you think?
Rate this book
Success Is Never Final
A strikingly fresh account of power struggles in early modern Europe by "the finest military historian currently writing." -- Reviews in History. The British politician Enoch Powell claimed that "all political lives end in failure" while, according to Winston Churchill, "success is never final." In these brilliant essays on the history of Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Geoffrey Parker finds an unusual number of cases of defeat snatched from the jaws of victory. Parker examines three defining developments of the period--the decline of the Spanish empire, the emergence of modern warfare, and the rise of the Protestant Reformation--that demonstrate the paradox of success giving way to failure. Success Is Never Final offers a rich and original view of the limits of power. Lucid, provocative, and engaging, this stimulating collection could only be the work of one of the world's leading historians.
- GenresMilitary HistoryHistory
432 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2001
3 people are currently reading
83 people want to read
About the author
Geoffrey Parker
97 books172 followersGeoffrey Parker is Andreas Dorpalen Professor of European History and an Associate of the Mershon Center at The Ohio State University. He has published widely on the social, political and military history of early modern Europe, and in 2012 the Royal Dutch Academy recognized these achievements by awarding him its biennial Heineken Foundation Prize for History, open to scholars in any field, and any period, from any country.
Parker has written or co-written thirty-nine books, including The Military Revolution: Military innovation and the rise of the West, 1500-1800 (Cambridge University Press, 1988), winner of the 'best book prize' from both the American Military Institute and the Society for the History of Technology; The Grand Strategy of Philip II (Yale University Press, 1998), which won the Samuel Eliot Morison Prize from the Society of Military History; and Global Crisis: War, Climate Change and Catastrophe in the Seventeenth Century (Yale University Press, 2013), which won the Society of Military History’s Distinguished Book Prize and also one of the three medals awarded in 2014 by the British Academy for ‘a landmark academic achievement… which has transformed understanding of a particular subject’.
Before moving to Ohio State in 1997, Parker taught at Cambridge and St Andrews universities in Britain, at the University of British Columbia in Canada, and at Illinois and Yale Universities in the United States, teaching courses on the Reformation, European history and military history at both undergraduate and graduate levels. He has directed or co-directed over thirty Doctoral Dissertations to completion, as well as several undergraduate theses. In 2006 he won an OSU Alumni Distinguished Teaching Award.
He lives in Columbus, Ohio, and has four children. In 1987 he was diagnosed as having Multiple Sclerosis. His latest book is Imprudent King: A New Life of Philip II (Yale University Press, 2014).
Parker has written or co-written thirty-nine books, including The Military Revolution: Military innovation and the rise of the West, 1500-1800 (Cambridge University Press, 1988), winner of the 'best book prize' from both the American Military Institute and the Society for the History of Technology; The Grand Strategy of Philip II (Yale University Press, 1998), which won the Samuel Eliot Morison Prize from the Society of Military History; and Global Crisis: War, Climate Change and Catastrophe in the Seventeenth Century (Yale University Press, 2013), which won the Society of Military History’s Distinguished Book Prize and also one of the three medals awarded in 2014 by the British Academy for ‘a landmark academic achievement… which has transformed understanding of a particular subject’.
Before moving to Ohio State in 1997, Parker taught at Cambridge and St Andrews universities in Britain, at the University of British Columbia in Canada, and at Illinois and Yale Universities in the United States, teaching courses on the Reformation, European history and military history at both undergraduate and graduate levels. He has directed or co-directed over thirty Doctoral Dissertations to completion, as well as several undergraduate theses. In 2006 he won an OSU Alumni Distinguished Teaching Award.
He lives in Columbus, Ohio, and has four children. In 1987 he was diagnosed as having Multiple Sclerosis. His latest book is Imprudent King: A New Life of Philip II (Yale University Press, 2014).
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 5, 2021
A wonderful conceptual collection of some of Parker's essays, though could be somewhat too specialized for the non-professional. Parker is certainly the world's most accomplished scholar of the military machine of Philip II and among the top living historians of 16th and 17th Europe - the depth of his knowledge is just stunning. The introduction to each essay, which provide insight into Parker's theory and method, are worth reading on their own even if you can't get through the often dense exposition of the facts that follow.
November 12, 2021
Geoffrey Parker, a noted historian, presents a scholarly series of ten essays on the early modern history of Europe, mostly the period of 1500 to 1700. His subjects deeply engage the rise and decline of the Spanish Empire; warfare, particularly in Europe and the British Isles: and religion from the start of the Reformation and the formation of the Protestant faith in Scotland. Each chapter is prefaced with an introduction explaining how the author came to develop the essay. These introductions are warm and human, bringing out the interplay among scholars as they explore ideas and topics. The chapters themselves are serious, very detailed, and extensively referenced.
The chapter on "Philip II, Maps and Power," is most likely to appeal to general readers. It shows how the Spanish King attempted to gather information on his empire through intensive mapping. His filing system undercut the realization of this aim, and deprived his government, and later generations, of the effort that had been expended. Many of the maps were scattered or lost during his reign.
The most likely readers of this book are other scholars who may find the ideas, information, and many references of value. General readers who enjoy a detailed challenge in their reading will find
it in Success is Never final.
The chapter on "Philip II, Maps and Power," is most likely to appeal to general readers. It shows how the Spanish King attempted to gather information on his empire through intensive mapping. His filing system undercut the realization of this aim, and deprived his government, and later generations, of the effort that had been expended. Many of the maps were scattered or lost during his reign.
The most likely readers of this book are other scholars who may find the ideas, information, and many references of value. General readers who enjoy a detailed challenge in their reading will find
it in Success is Never final.
August 13, 2010
A boring and disjointed collection of cursory essays. The titular subjects are given a once-over that doesn't really illuminate them beyond the most elementary understanding, especially since the material - the Spanish Armada, the Protestant Reformation, Oliver Cromwell and Irish independence- has been covered may times before. It just seemed like overkill; I knew all the stuff Parker was saying. A passable introduction, if you're one of the few who might be new to this era and subject, but I much prefer a more detailed and focused work.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews