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Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia 1600-1947 |
This is a somewhat academic account of a state that for good or ill has dominated European and world politics for centuries. Nevertheless, it is always readable and often utterly spellbinding. Where it works best is in the painstaking description of the advent of the Hohenzollerns from relative obscurity which in turn help to explain and give context to the exploits of a series of brilliant leaders, most notably, Frederick the Great and Bismarck.
(Jeremy Miller - bwl 92 Spring 2019) |
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Prisoners of Time: Prussians, Germans and Other Humans |
This series of essays covers aspects of Germany, from the serious - the attempts to convert Prussian Jews to Christianity, to the more capricious - a virtuous meditation on the nature of political power down the ages. Each raises questions about how we think about the past and about the pitfalls of history as a discipline. Clark, one of our finest living historians, has produced a work of such entertainment and value that only he could have written.
(Jeremy Miller - bwl 102 Autumn 2021) |
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Revolutionary Spring: Fighting for a New World 1848-1849 |
In this magnificently researched work, the author describes the many revolutions that eclipsed Europe in 1848. Though they followed one another in different countries, one was not the spark for the next. Rather they were all spawned by a common set of continent-wide social and political conditions. Initially successful, within the year the old order had begun to reassert itself often with great ferocity and many of the newly gained freedoms were, alas, rolled back.
(Jeremy Miller - bwl 109 Summer 2023) |
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The Sleepwalkers: How Europe went to War in 1914 |
In 1903, 28 Serbian army officers brutally murdered King Alexander and his Queen (she was reading a French novel at the time). So begins the most gripping and beguiling account of the decades of history that informed the events of 1914. That it takes over 100 pages just to describe the Balkan intrigues which culminate in Sarajevo is evidence enough that this is no ordinary history. Indeed it is a masterpiece not to be missed.
(Jeremy Miller - bwl 75 Winter 2015) |
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