Read by Natasha Soudek

This vivid fifty-year history of Germany from 1871-1918-which inspired events that forever changed the European continent-is the story of the Second Reich from its violent beginnings and rise to power to its calamitous defeat in the First World War. Before 1871, Germany was not yet a nation but simply an idea. Its founder, Otto von Bismarck, had a formidable task at hand. How would he bring thirty-nine individual states under the yoke of a single Kaiser? How would he convince proud Prussians, Bavarians, and Rhinelanders to become Germans? Once united, could the young European nation wield enough power to rival the empires of Britain and France-all without destroying itself in the process? In this unique study of five decades that changed the course of modern history, Katja Hoyer tells the story of the German Empire's beginning to its defeat in World War I. This often startling narrative is a dramatic tale of national self-discovery, social upheaval, and realpolitik that ended, as it started, in blood and iron. "Brisk, thoughtful and thoroughly engaging." "A balanced and hugely accessible introduction to the age when Germany became Germany." "Superb…Skillfully unveils how nationalism can come into being out of a sense of comparative inferiority. It's hard to imagine a better, more up-to-date history of its subject." "Splendidly lucid and readable: Katja Hoyer has managed to compress fifty years of great complexity into a compelling and comprehensible narrative-and it is a story that every European needs to know and to understand." "Hoyer's well-researched and well-written book is the best biography of the Second Reich in years. It will undoubtedly become the essential account of this vitally important part of European history." "Splendidly lucid and readable: Hoyer has managed to compress fifty years of great complexity into a compelling and comprehensible narrative." "Hoyer brings this dense period of German history to life with a lightness of touch that complements her impressive scholarship. Highly recommended." "Concise and incisive, this sparkling examination of the rise and fall of the Second Reich is an excellent introduction to a crucial period of German history." "An excellent book on the rise and fall of the German Empire from 1871 to 1918 that is packed with detail and illuminating insights. This book fills a gap in our understanding of the Second Reich, and it helps us to understand more clearly the reasons for its failure."

Mode of access: World Wide Web