"GNW Books?" Topic

I've noticed some interest in the Great Northern War, here, on TMP, and was wondering what books are available about the GNW. I would be interested in military or campaign studies but a good overview would also be welcome. From searches at Amazon, etc. there doesn't seem to be a lot of detailed info out there. I suppose that biographies of Charles XII and Peter the Great would be useful, but I am also interested in the Poland/Saxon and Danish phases. Any help would be appreciated

Peter Englund. The Battle that Shook Europe. This is a very good narrative of the battle of Poltava.

Lars-Eric Höglund & Ake Sallinäs. The Great Northern War, 1700-1721. I got my copies from Peter Barry of Baccus6mm. Lot of info on uniforms of the major combatants.

By the way, Höglund and Sallinäs book are 2 volumes. The first devoted to Swedish Army, and the second to Russians, Prussians and Saxons.

Charles Nisbett Bain: "Charles XII and the Collapse of the Swedish Empire: 1682-1719" (Paperback)

Not the best, but available from.

Massie's biography of Peter the Great has a good overview of the war. A good, accessable starting point.

Basileus' suggestions are essential for any serious wargamer of the period.

Ragnald Hatton's biography of Charles is the standard work in English.

There is another, mainly military, biography in English that is very good, but I will have to check the author's name when I get home.

Dan Schorr has an extensive bibliography on his Northernwars.com site. If it is not there, it probably is not worth having.

It has been a while since I checked the bibliography on Dan's site. Upon further review, it is from a Danish library, so the info is primarily, but certainly not exclusively, about the Danish involvement in the war. Still, its a great source, as is the entire website.

The other biography is by F.G. Bengtsson. Translated form Swedish in 1960. Very goos, if you can find it.

All depends on if you can read Swedish or not. There is one book that can be added to the ones mentioned above:

'Lion of the North' by Voltaire. While not a true history, it does give you a great feel for the period and the personality of Charles.

If you can read Swedish [or if you're only interested in orders of battle], there are a ton of books that you can acquire that would help.

The only work on the Polish army of the period is written in Polish: "Wojsko Rzeczypospolitej w dobie wojny polnocnej" written in the 1956 by Jan Wimmer, though Dan's website has all the info one might need to paint up a mess of Saxons.

The Danish General Staff published a 12 or 13 volume set on the Great Northern War entitled "Bidrag til Stora Nordiska Kriget" but it's quite difficult to find a full set. The Swedish General Staff's account is "Karl XII pa slagfaltet" and can be acquired in full if you have the green.

Until some enterprising soul decides to translate this stuff into English or attempts to write a definitive history of the war, I'm afraid that this thread has exhausted most of the resources in English.