Description
Book SynopsisOne of A.J.P. Taylor''s best-known books, The Course of German History is a notoriously idiosyncratic work. Composed in his famously witty style, yet succinct to the point of sharpness, this is one of the great historian''s finest, if more controversial, accomplishments. As Taylor himself noted, ''the history of the Germans is a history of extremes. It contains everything except moderation.'' He could, of course, simply be referring to his own book.
Trade Review'Mr Taylor, by cutting down to a minimum the ballast of dates and names that so often encumbers historical writing, and concentrating on the fundamental trends and events, has achieved both brevity and lucidity.' -The Observer
'Mr Taylor, by cutting down to a minimum the ballast of dates and names that so often encumbers historical writing, and concentrating on the fundamental trends and events, has achieved both brevity and lucidity.'
'He is not only a brilliant but a profound historian.'
'The profound is mixed with the wisecrack. It has the shortcomings of its virtues. It will shock the scholarly reader but it must challenge him too.'
'The Course of German History is vivid, exciting, openly partisan.'
'His first best-seller, - The Course of German History was written in a "journalistic" rather than academic style and remains extremely readable.'
'Taylor's work is a model of stylish, scintillating compression.' - The Atlantic Monthly
'A lively, if polemical, short history written by one of the twentieth century's greatest historians.'
'Too much brilliancy is hurtful in intercourse with ideas, as too much wit is in intercourse with men; a dazzling formulation is apt to interfere with the precise presentation of a subject or thesis. Still, in spite of such shortcomings, the book should prove of high value in the study of the German problem.'
Table of Contents1. Divided Germany: The Legacy of the Holy Roman Empire 2. The Ascendancy of France, 1792-1814 3. The German Confederation: The Years of Austro-Prussian Partnership, 1815-48 4. 1848: The Year of German Liberalism 5. The Ascendancy of Austria, 1849-60 6. The Conquest of Germany by Prussia, 1862-71 7. Bismarckian Germany: The Ascendancy of Prussia, 1871-90 8. The Germany of William II: The Conquest of Prussia by Germany, 1890-1906 9. The Crisis of Hohenzollern Germany, 1906-1916 10. The Rule of the German Army, 1916-19 11. Republican Interregnum, 1919-30 12. Demagogic Dictatorship and the Completion of German Unity After 1930
