Description
Book SynopsisThis is the life story of one of the most interesting human beings who ever lived. A political genius who remade Europe and united Germany between 1862 and 1890 by the sheer power of his great personality. It takes the reader into close proximity with a human being of almost superhuman abilities. We see him through the eyes of his secretaries, his old friends, his neighbours, his enemies and the press. Otto von Bismarck ''made'' Germany but never ''ruled'' it. For twenty eight years he acted as a prime minister without a party. He made speeches, brilliant in content but hesitant in delivery, and rarely addressed a public meeting. He planned three wars and after a certain stage in his career always wore military uniform to which he had no claim. The ''Iron Chancellor'', the image of Prussian militarism, suffered from hypochondria and hysteria. Contemporaries called him a ''dictator'' and several observers credited him with ''demonic'' powers''. They were not wrong. The sheer power of hi
Trade ReviewThis is an austere and thoughtful book ... Steinberg has given us a major biography. * The Guardian *
Otto von Bismarck became the dominant figure of his era and, as this rich and readable biography shows, had an almost uncanny sense of power. Steinberg's portrait is very much warts and all. * The Sunday Times *
Jonathan Steinbergâs new biography of Bismarck has been widely acclaimed, and rightly so. I read a lot of German history, and this is the most enjoyable German history book I have read in years. As a deeply researched but accessible guide to the life of one of nineteenth-century Europeâs most compelling and significant political figures, it stands head and shoulders above other Bismarck biographies. * Abigail Green, European History Quarterly *
Table of Contents1. Introduction: Bismarck's 'Sovereign Self' ; 2. Born Prussian and What that Meant ; 3. Bismarck: The 'Mad Junker' ; 4. Bismarck Represents Himself, 1847-1851 ; 5. Bismarck as Diplomat, 1851-1862 ; 6. Power ; 7. 'I have beaten them all! All!' ; 8. The Unification of Germany, 1866-1870 ; 9. The Decline Begins: Liberals and Catholics ; 10. 'The Guest House of the Dead Jew' ; 11. Three Kaisers and Bismarck's Fall from Power ; 12. Conclusion. Bismarck's Legacy: Blood and Irony ; Notes ; Bibliography ; Index
