Bismarck: A Life

Read Bismarck: A Life Storyline:

Otto von Bismarck transformed Europe more completely than anybody in the
nineteenth century--except for Napoleon. He unified--and indeed,
created--the country at the center of two world wars that would
transform the world. This riveting biography illuminates the life
of the statesman who unified Germany but who also embodied everything
brutal and ruthless about Prussian culture. Jonathan Steinberg draws
heavily on contemporary writings, allowing Bismarck's friends and foes
to tell the story. What rises from these pages is a complex giant of a
man: a hypochondriac with the constitution of an ox, a brutal tyrant who
could easily shed tears, a convert to an extreme form of evangelical
Protestantism who secularized schools and introduced civil divorce.
Bismarck may have been in sheer ability the most intelligent man to
direct a great state in modern times. His brilliance and insight dazzled
his contemporaries. But all agreed there was also something demonic,
diabolical, overwhelming, beyond human attributes, in Bismarck's
personality. He was a kind of malign genius who, behind the various
postures, concealed an ice-cold contempt for his fellow human beings and
a drive to control and rule them. As one contemporary noted: "the
Bismarck regime was a constant orgy of scorn and abuse of mankind,
collectively and individually." In this comprehensive and expansive
biography--a brilliant study in power--Jonathan Steinberg brings
Bismarck to life, revealing the stark contrast between the "Iron
Chancellor's" unmatched political skills and his profoundly flawed human
character.Jonathan Steinberg is the Walter H. Annenberg Professor
of Modern European History at the University of Pennsylvania, and
Emeritus Fellow, Trinity Hall, Cambridge. His books include Yesterday's Deterrent: Tirpitz and the Birth of the German Battle Fleet and All or Nothing: The Axis and the Holocaust 1941 - 1943.