Blood and Iron: The Rise and Fall of the German Empire

In this vivid fifty-year history of Germany from 1871-1918--which inspired events that forever changed the European continent--here is the story of the Second Reich from its violent beginnings and rise to power to its calamitous defeat in the First World War.

Before 1871, Germany was not yet nation but simply an idea.

Its founder, Otto von Bismarck, had a formidable task at hand. How would he bring thirty-nine individual states under the yoke of a single Kaiser? How would he convince proud Prussians, Bavarians, and Rhinelanders to become Germans? Once united, could the young European nation wield enough power to rival the empires of Britain and France--all without destroying itself in the process?

In this unique study of five decades that changed the course of modern history, Katja Hoyer tells the story of the German Empire from its violent beginnings to its calamitous defeat in the First World War.

This often startling narrative is a dramatic tale of national self-discovery, social upheaval, and realpolitik that ended, as it started, in blood and iron.

Author: Katja Hoyer
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Published: 12/07/2021
Pages: 272
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 9.10h x 5.90w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9781643138374

About the Author
Katja Hoyer is a German-British historian specializing in modern German history. She was born in East Germany and is a member of the Royal Historical Society in London and has written for History Today and BBC History Extra among other history outlets. Katja now lives in Sussex, England.