The German Empire: 1870-1918

This excellent book achieves three major points, in addition to serving as a good general historical guide to political Europe in the 1850-1914 period. First, it provides further evidence of Bismark's political skill and intuitive understanding of how to build a major nation state in the midst of competative neighbors. While his image has traditionally been as a warmonger, this books outlines his true aims and vision as perhaps the greatest leverage-artist of the past two hundred years. Second, the book articulates well how Germany was created by Prussia from a patchwork of independent and fragmented small states and cities. Finally, we get a tantalising glimpse of how a liberal, free-trade, democratic Germany might have taken a different path in from the 1890s onwards, given leadership of a similiar calibre. The reader can compare for themselves how, after the "100 hundred years of waste", Germany has now taken that road.Highly recommended for anyone interested in recent or modern European political history, and in learning the basics of nation-building and the leveraging of power.

Michael Stuermer has written an informative but concise historical essay on Germany during the time it first emerged as a unified nation and Great Power under Bismarck down to the Treaty of Versailles following World War I. For a book this brief, it is remarkable in its scope, providing character studies of major figures like Bismarck and Wilhelm II, insights into socioeconomic and cultural developments during the period, a good analysis of German politics and political forces, and a useful synopsis of international developments in Europe. For those who lack a background on Germany prior to the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich and are curious about how this period shaped those later times, reading this book should be a quite worthwhile investment. While this book clearly lacks the depth that more advanced readers might be seeking, it should even prove rewarding to them in its attempt to examine the period in a capsulized review.

Michael Stuermer has written an informative but concise historical essay on Germany during the time it first emerged as a unified nation and Great Power under Bismarck down to the Treaty of Versailles following World War I. (I am unsure why the title of the book has it ending in 1914, when it clearly carries forward to 1919--admittedly a minor criticism.) For a book this brief, it is remarkable in its scope, providing character studies of major figures like Bismarck and Wilhelm II, insights into socioeconomic and cultural developments during the period, a good analysis of German politics and political forces, and a useful synopsis of international developments in Europe. For those who lack a background on Germany prior to the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich and are curious about how this period shaped those later times, reading this book should be a quite worthwhile investment. While this book clearly lacks the depth that more advanced readers might be seeking, it should even prove rewarding to them in its attempt to examine the period in a capsulized review.

In this concise and very well written book, Sturmer introduces the lay person, the non-expert, to one of the most important periods in German (and, for that matter, European) history. Sturmer narrates the story of a radical political, economic, and social transformation the Germany went through in less than half-a-century (from a loose confederation of small, largely agricultural, and mostly poor states with traditional, religious societies to a modern, industrialized, prosperous, unified, and dangerously nationalistic superpower). It is an intiguing story, well told by the author.

I didn't know much about Bismarck or the German Empire leading up to World War I and this is a fantastic, deeply stimulating introduction. Sturmer masterfully explains how Germany went from brand-new nation to prime mover in European affairs and catalyst for WWI in sich a short period of time. His explanation of the origins of WWI is the clearest I've yet read. Bravo!