The most detailed account ever written of the first half of Kaiser Wilhelm II's reign.
Kaiser Wilhelm II ruled Imperial Germany from his accession in 1888 to his enforced abdication in 1918 at the end of the First World War. This book, based on a wealth of previously unpublished archival material, provides the most detailed account ever written of the first half of his reign.
The most detailed account ever written of the first half of Kaiser Wilhelm II's reign.
Kaiser Wilhelm II ruled Imperial Germany from his accession in 1888 to his enforced abdication in 1918 at the end of the First World War. This book, based on a wealth of previously unpublished archival material, provides the most detailed account ever written of the first half of his reign.
Kaiser Wilhelm II (1859–1941) ruled Imperial Germany from his accession in 1888 to his enforced abdication in 1918 at the end of the First World War. This book, based on a wealth of previously unpublished archival material, provides the most detailed account ever written of the first half of his reign. Following on from the author's highly acclaimed Young Wilhelm (1998), the volume demonstrates the monarch's dynastic arrogance and the wounding abuse he showered on his own people as, step by step, he built up his personal power. His thirst for glory, his overweening nationalism and militarism, and his passion for the navy provided the impetus for a breathtaking long-term goal: the transformation of the German Reich into the foremost power in the world. Soon the predictable consequences - constitutional crisis at home and diplomatic isolation abroad - began to make their alarming appearance.
“"...truly an extraordinary accomplishment, one representing the capstone of a lifetime of research and thinking about Wilhelm II and Germany." - H-German, Kelly McFall, Newman University”
Review of the hardback: '… his scholarship is profound and beyond reproach. This biography of the last German Kaiser is a monument not only to its mercurial subject, but also to a highly distinctive academic career.' The Times Literary Supplement
Review of the hardback: 'This biography is definitive by being exhaustive. … This is a wonderful example of scholarship and hard work'. Contemporary Reviews
John C. G. Röhl is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Sussex. His many previous publications include The Kaiser and his Court (1994) which was awarded the Wolfson History Prize as well as the two other volumes of his biography of Kaiser Wilhelm II – Young Wilhelm: The Kaiser's Early Life, 1859–1888 (Cambridge, 1998) and Wilhelm II: Into the Abyss of War and Exile, 1900–1941 (Cambridge, 2014).
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