Author(s): Katja Hoyer

History

'The best biography of the Second Reich in years ... It will undoubtedly become the essential account of this vitally important part of European history' Andrew Roberts

Before1871, Germany was not a nation but an idea. Its founder, Otto von Bismarck, hada formidable task at hand. How would he bring thirty-nine individual statesunder the yoke of a single Kaiser, convincing proud Prussians, Bavarians andRhinelanders to become Germans? Once united, could the young European nation wield enough power to rival the empires of Britain and France - all withoutdestroying itself in the process? Ina unique study of five decades that changed the course of modern history, KatjaHoyer tells the story of the German Empire from its violent beginnings to its calamitous defeat in the First World War. It is a dramatic tale of nationalself-discovery, social upheaval and realpolitik that ended, as it started, inblood and iron.