Bismarck

Feb 21, 2012 Frank Stein rated it 5 of 5 stars

An impressive and shocking portrait of a political genius and a damaged individual. Steinberg manages to depict the grand course of German history over the entirety of the nineteenth century through that era's most dominant personality, Otto von Bismarck.

On the whole, Steinberg aims at a psychological investigation, one achieved through heavy use of Bismarck's own writings and the writings of others who came in contact with him, both often supplied in large block quotes, sometimes three or four...more An impressive and shocking portrait of a political genius and a damaged individual. Steinberg manages to depict the grand course of German history over the entirety of the nineteenth century through that era's most dominant personality, Otto von Bismarck.

On the whole, Steinberg aims at a psychological investigation, one achieved through heavy use of Bismarck's own writings and the writings of others who came in contact with him, both often supplied in large block quotes, sometimes three or four to a page. Though this often breaks the flow of the narrative and leads to excessive sourcing discussions, as well as some tedious minutiae (Bismarck's innumerable illnesses occupy a large portion of the book), the end result is unparalleled.

Like FDR or Lincoln, Bismarck inspired continual fascination in all who came in contact with him. His subtle intelligence coupled with his hair-trigger temper and his surprisingly diplomatic habits lead many to wonder what made him tick. For instance, one friend described his eyes as "mistrustful/friendly, lurking/bright, cold/flashing, determined not to reveal what goes on behind them unless he intends it." There are innumerable other, almost mystical descriptions from his companions and competitors. Steinberg shows, though, that much of what went on behind Bismarck's was an unquenchable rage, at everyone and everything, one that infected those around him. His soft-spoken Christian wife Johanna eventually learned to keep a card catalog of his enemies, in order to refuse social invitations and create fresh snubs. His son turned into a cynical and embittered adult when in a rage Bismarck refused to let him marry the daughter of a political "enemy" (they were everywhere) who had already divorced a leading aristocrat to be with him. In this rage, as was typical, Bismarck threatened his son with his potential suicide, complete abandonment, and even his own death from a stroke. He used similar tactics, of petulant hypochondria, rage, and neediness, with everyone from his own ministers to King William I. In some ways his constant illnesses and fits, resulting in countless resignation letters, were the source of his power, forcing others to accommodate to his wants. But it was never an act. Many, many times visitors questioned whether he was on the border of insanity. In the end, though, Steinberg makes a convincing case that he desperately needed approval, especially from King William I, as much as William and others needed him to lead the country to greatness.

An odd bunch of traits then for the man known as the "Iron Chancellor." His accomplishments belied his faults, however. After being appointed Minister-President in 1862, it took him just eight years to turn Prussia from one state among many to the head of the most powerful country in Europe, and William from a mere King to a "German Emperor." This without any parliamentary majority or any strong personal faction to support him. From 1862 until 1890, when a new King came to power and forced Bismarck out, he had to govern by constant and shifting allegiances, with multiple persons and parties, all of whom became enthralled by his perception and power.

I can't do justice to the work here, but I have to say this is one of the best political biographies ever and one of the best illustrations of Germany in the nineteenth century. Without berating the subject, it shows how Bismarck's singular personality prepared the nation for the rule of another unstable despot. (less)

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Dec 26, 2012 Mikey B. rated it 5 of 5 stars

My purpose in reading this book was to obtain background on German history in the 19th century and Mr. Steinberg is largely successful at this. We can clearly see that Bismarck was the catapult for the Germany of the 20th century.

The author paints a very complex portrait of Bismarck. He unified Germany and to some extent modernized it by increasing the electorate and introducing some social programs – by the end of the 19th century Germany had become a major industrial power. Even though he “pla...more My purpose in reading this book was to obtain background on German history in the 19th century and Mr. Steinberg is largely successful at this. We can clearly see that Bismarck was the catapult for the Germany of the 20th century.

The author paints a very complex portrait of Bismarck. He unified Germany and to some extent modernized it by increasing the electorate and introducing some social programs – by the end of the 19th century Germany had become a major industrial power. Even though he “played” with liberalism, Bismarck did little to make Germany democratic in the sense that France and England were. This was deliberate – the theme of Bismarck’s dominating personality runs throughout the book – whether it was to dominate Prussian royalty, the pseudo-parliament and cabinet which had no real power, or to control foreign affairs. One needed to sublimate to the “will” of Bismarck.

In many ways this process of “domination” continued with Kaiser William II who precipitated World War I and this was followed by Hitler’s war. Bismarck was very different than both; unlike the Kaiser he was careful in external affairs and Bismarck’s wars were more contained, he had none of the fanatical hatred of Jews, Slavs, Poles… that possessed Hitler’s thought processes (this is not to say that Bismarck was not an anti-Semite).

Mr. Steinberg describes well the successful struggle Bismarck waged against the rising tide of liberalism in Germany and the wars that led to Prussia’s unification with the rest of Germany. He also explains his struggle against the Church – both Protestant and Catholic.

I would have liked more on the war with France; little was said on the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine which led to a permanent cleavage between Germany and France – perhaps Bismarck’s greatest mistake in foreign relations. Bismarck usually strived to not make permanent enemies in Europe.

The author highlights often the intrigues that Bismarck created externally and within – which brings to mind the expression “Oh what a tangle web we weave”. We are presented with a man who could be both demonic and charming – often to the same person!
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Aug 10, 2012 Lars Brownworth rated it 2 of 5 stars

The first ingredient in a successful biography is a good subject, and Steinberg couldn’t have asked for a better one. He perfectly sums us the enigma of Bismark in his opening chapter: The Iron Chancellor made Germany but never ruled it. He was not charismatic or a great speaker. He had no military credentials, led no political party, had no great wealth, and served at the whim of three different emperors- any of whom could have dismissed him with a word. And yet, he dominated Germany and Europe...more The first ingredient in a successful biography is a good subject, and Steinberg couldn’t have asked for a better one. He perfectly sums us the enigma of Bismark in his opening chapter: The Iron Chancellor made Germany but never ruled it. He was not charismatic or a great speaker. He had no military credentials, led no political party, had no great wealth, and served at the whim of three different emperors- any of whom could have dismissed him with a word. And yet, he dominated Germany and Europe as few have before or since. He controlled his contemporaries so completely that most of them described him as a ‘tyrant’ or ‘dictator’. He was both a physical and a mental giant, towering above any other actor on the political stage.

Steinberg writes in his preface that he “has the illusion that he understands” Bismark. The reason for this is immediately clear- he has spent countless hours pouring through personal correspondence, diaries, articles, books, and memoirs. These are peppered throughout the book in endless block quotes, an avalanche of data that inundates you with both poignant and pointless facts. The problem is that all of these words aren’t terribly illuminating- and it becomes clear that Steinberg doesn’t particularly like his subject. The end result is a caricature. Instead of the usual ‘brilliant genius who could do no wrong’, we get the ‘hypochondriac, paranoid, emotionally stunted, manchild genius who could do little right’. At the end he casually tosses around incendiary comments- ‘modern Germany still unconsciously believes that a Jew cannot be a German’(p388)- and then tries his best to link Bismark to the Nazis. Bismark’s triumph over his liberal political enemies becomes ‘Bismark’s gift to Hitler’ (p399), and since Bismark and Hitler were both ‘genius-statesman Chancellors of Germany‘ there was a ‘linear and direct legacy between them’(p478).

His last chapter is titled ‘Blood and Irony’. Perhaps the irony here is that Steinberg was correct in his assessment. The picture he gives of Bismark is more illusion than understanding. (less)

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Apr 25, 2011 Anastasia Fitzgerald-Beaumont rated it 5 of 5 stars

The Juggler

Nineteenth century Europe was a game of two halves or, better, a game of two men: the Emperor Napoleon, who dominated the first, and Otto von Bismarck, who dominated the second. If anything Bismarck was the more important of the two, creating not just a new Germany but a new Europe, with a legacy that extended well into the twentieth century. He was the greater because he was the more cunning; the lesser because his vision was considerably more limited. In some ways Bismarck was the...more The Juggler

Nineteenth century Europe was a game of two halves or, better, a game of two men: the Emperor Napoleon, who dominated the first, and Otto von Bismarck, who dominated the second. If anything Bismarck was the more important of the two, creating not just a new Germany but a new Europe, with a legacy that extended well into the twentieth century. He was the greater because he was the more cunning; the lesser because his vision was considerably more limited. In some ways Bismarck was the best statesman Germany ever had; in other ways the worst.

The paradox of the Iron Chancellor is superbly explored by Jonathan Steinberg in Bismarck: A Life, published earlier this year. Given his importance it’s remarkable how little attention he has achieved in the English-speaking world, obsessed, as it is, with Hitler. The only other study that I have read is Alan Palmer’s Bismarck, a dated and not terribly satisfactory biography. Steinberg makes up for so many deficiencies in our understanding, not just of Bismarck but of modern Germany, his legacy to the world.

There is one thing that’s important to understand about Bismarck – he was a juggler of consummate skill. Leo von Caprivi, who succeeded him as Chancellor in 1890, an unenviable task, said that while his predecessor was able to keep five balls in the air at any one time he could barely manage two. As the balls fell so did the Bismarck system, which maintained a precarious, personally-based, balance of power on the Continent, in succession to the old Concert of Europe, which followed from the defeat of Napoleon in 1815.

It’s almost impossible not to admire and dislike Bismarck at one and the same time. There is so much to admire. Here was a man with no military background and little in the way of experience in office before he became Minister President of Prussia in 1862. Here was a man who, bit by bit, removed every obstacle to German unification, unification, on his own terms, I might add, not the unification that was conceived by the liberals of the Frankfurt Parliament in the wild days of 1848, almost as if he was following a road map. Here was a man who thereafter managed a skilled balancing act that kept Russia and Austria, both with dangerously conflicting ambitions in the Balkans, on reasonably friendly terms, thus isolating an unhappy and vengeful France, smarting from the humiliating defeat it had suffered in the war of 1870.

Charming, sophisticated, highly intelligent and enormously driven, Bismarck, on the dark side, was callous, manipulative, paranoid to an astonishing degree, as well as being an amazing hypochondriac, which the author roots in his upbringing under a gentle but ineffectual father and a coldly indifferent mother. He was the kind of statesman that Machiavelli would have admired for his ruthlessness and yet, I would suggest, have found wanting for the lack of vision that I referred to at the outset.

The trouble is, you see, Bismarck never seemed to have thought much beyond himself, thought of a time when he would no longer be in command, thought of the future of Germany. With no power base in either the Reichstag or the army, his chancellorship depended on no more than the personal bond that he formed with King Wilhelm I of Prussia, subsequently the first Kaiser of the new German Reich. As Steinberg shows, everything Bismarck achieved was a result of this unique relationship between monarch and subject; that if he had been sacked after his belligerent Blood and Iron speech to the Prussian Landtag in September 1862 (actually it was Iron and Blood!), as many had wanted at the time, even within royal circles, then Germany may have entered the twentieth century as a collection of principalities. Wilhelm, however, remained loyal, though one has to sympathise with his lament that it was hard to be a king under Bismarck.

The bond worked well in helping Bismarck achieve his domestic as well as his foreign policy objectives, but it was a form of personal politics that created instability at the heart of government. To put it another way, Bismarck could unite Germany but not Germans; he could create a modern state without bequeathing a modern and stable polity. Some of his domestic policies, notably the Kulturkampf, his struggle with the Catholic Church in Prussia, were immensely counter-productive, not to say bizarrely unnecessary. His attempt to quash the Socialist Party, moreover, only served to increase its appeal.

Bismarck’s power was built on a quiescent Emperor. When Wilhelm’s grandson and namesake came to the throne in 1888 the bond was broken and the iron quickly rusted. It was after his dismissal in 1890 that the weakness of his system became immediately apparent, as Caprivi was the first to understand. It would be wrong to say that the road was opened to the Great War – there are two many other variables to be considered – but the temptation is a strong one.

Steinberg should be highly commended for producing a fine piece of work, readable without any sacrifices to scholarship, one of incisive psychology and wonderful attention to detail. I have one fairly important reservation, more of a quibble, I suppose – a lapse at the conclusion into the usual tiresome historical teleology with Hitler as the end result, a seamless progression from the Iron Chancellor to the Little Corporal. But Hitler, with his unrealistic dreams and limitless goals, was the antithesis of Bismarck, always careful, calculated and rational, always aware of the relationship between means and ends. Bismarck could create Germany; Hitler could only destroy it.
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Oct 06, 2011 Elizabeth rated it 3 of 5 stars

Bismarck changed the history of Europe -- this is one of those statements written in a high school term paper that makes the teacher roll his or her eyes. So tell me something I don't know. This biography explains how his personality, intelligence, and shear force of will allowed him to do this. It is a very dense history of necessity, but poorly edited and typeset. Being the pedant I am, I found it annoying that lines ran together with no spaces. Obviously the publisher didn't want to re-run th...more

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Oct 30, 2012 Tom Brucia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history

A densely written work which gives me a lot to think about. I think I'm going to reread it with a pad and pen and take a lot of detailed notes..... So many threads still echo in the 21st century, in some ways more in the U.S. than in modern Europe. It does leave me realizing that I need to find an equally compelling volume taking me from 1898 (death of Bismarck) to 1914 (start of World War I). One thing that surprised me was the Prussian and German obsession with law and legislation. I'm gradual...more

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Aug 01, 2012 Jonathan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: history

Otto Von Bismarck was an appalling human being: anti-Semitic, misogynistic, vengeful, dishonest, given to temper tantrums, and a hypochondriac to boot. Yet, this giant of a man - in every sense - was 19th century Europe's most effective politician and diplomat, and was a major force in the formation of the German state. Such thundering contradictions and a firm grip of the historical context are grist for Professor Steinberg's thorough mill in this excellent and comprehensive biography. Since it...more

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Jan 22, 2012 Chris rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book suffers for its lack of context. Anybody who picks up a book like this will surely have some knowledge of European history, but to be appropriate for a broad audience, this book would have had to better explain the major events of 19th century German history that Bismarck was involved in. Steinberg glosses over events like the Crimean War, assuming his readers know all the details. I spent much of my time with this book referencing other works in order to provide the necessary informat...more

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Oct 25, 2012 Joel rated it 4 of 5 stars

Quite good. Fascinating exploration of Bismarck, unification of Germany under Bismarck & Prussia, and how the German/Reich govt was crafted by Bismarck to give him maximum power. However, the political system he set up couldn't be held together by normal politicians (& even arguably by Bismarck). Illuminates the deep-seated and historical antisemitism in Germany, particularly among Junkers and then subsequently among rising educated middle class. I believe most of the history of antisemi...more

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Mar 07, 2013 Henri Moreaux rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: biographies, nf_military-war, non-fiction, abandoned, nf_other-wars, europe

I was very disappointed in this book.

Biographies generally need two additives, a good subject and a good narrative. Otto von Bismarck is a fantastic subject and led an extremely interesting life - he was essentially the Hitler of the 1800s.

I found the problem here though was the writer has taken an interesting subject and added dull narrative. I found it extremely difficult to 'get into' this book and it just seemed to ramble on and on. I found it resembled a textbook more than a non-fiction boo...more

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Jul 22, 2011 Dan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011

This was a detailed treatment of The Mad Junker with lots of primary sources. It was a tough, tough read, though; very dense at times, and demanding that I recall my previous coursework in 19th century German history more than I thought it would. Those were OK. I will say I had two problems:

1. Author's insertion into narrative -- The author was WAY too visible in this book. Lots of first person pronouns and asides that would have been better off in the footnotes, or left out entirely.

2. Needed a...more

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May 17, 2011 Vheissu rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Vheissu by: drbuckley@roadrunner.com

Shelves: history, military-and-international-affairs

"Admirable" is not a word I can apply to Bismarck, nor it is a word that Steinberg suggests. Otto von Bismarck was a viscous, vindictive, duplicitous, unprincipled "dictator" (yes, dictator is how most of his friends and enemies viewed him in life), and hoary anti-Semite who ruthlessly destroyed friends and foes alike. Bismarck was just as happy to establish a social security system for the workers as he was to massacre striking workers if either served his immediate political purpose. Bismarck...more "Admirable" is not a word I can apply to Bismarck, nor it is a word that Steinberg suggests. Otto von Bismarck was a viscous, vindictive, duplicitous, unprincipled "dictator" (yes, dictator is how most of his friends and enemies viewed him in life), and hoary anti-Semite who ruthlessly destroyed friends and foes alike. Bismarck was just as happy to establish a social security system for the workers as he was to massacre striking workers if either served his immediate political purpose. Bismarck was an uncultured country squire who cared nothing about art, literature, science, philosophy or architecture and contributed nothing at all to German culture. Except maybe one thing: the political passivity of the German masses and their blind obedience to the "genius statesman." Bismarck set the stage for both William II and Hitler, with the difference that Hitler at least liked art and architecture, vulgar though his tastes might have been.

The problem with previous Bismarck biographies is their hagiography, which reflects German popular memories of the "Iron and Blood" chancellor. Bismarck became even more popular, more mythic once he was forced out of office in disgrace, dying a miserable and lonely death. The Junker's portrait became a staple in most German homes, just as Franklin Roosevelt or John F. Kennedy or Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, photographs would become common in American homes. The difference being, of course, that the three Americans represented the best in their society while Bismarck represented the worst in his. Hitler at least managed to turn his photographs into money making propositions; every poster and German stamp that bore der Führer's mug was copyrighted with royalties going directly to Mr. Hitler himself.

Steinberg does not make the mistake of writing another hagiography of Bismarck. He includes diary passages and incendiary correspondence that official biographers and admirers conveniently censored from their own accounts of Bismarck. For this the author is to be greatly commended. Perhaps no greater crime was committed by the Junker than his refusal to allow the marriage between his own son and the great love of his son's life in order to exact political revenge on a matter that mattered only to the elder Bismarck and nobody else. Not surprisingly, the son became a drunk and a bitter cynic. Not since Ivan the Terrible murdered his own son over his daughter-in-law's dress has there been a more tragic and unforgivable crime committed by a father upon his own child.

Instead of "admirable," I would use the word "illustrative." Bismarck serves as perhaps the single best example of political realism, as the perspective is called in the field of International Relations. Neither Thucydides nor Machiavelli express the essential elements of realism as well as the career of Bismarck and neither, of course, had an opportunity to govern a great power according to its precepts. For Bismarck, German domestic politics were completely unlike diplomacy and great power politics, the latter governed solely by national interests defined in terms of power. Bismarck's Germany had no permanent allies or enemies; the chancellor was even willing to embrace France if necessary to counter Austria. His foreign policy was not moral or immoral, it was amoral. Personal or even national values never distracted him from the pursuit of Germany's national interests. Bismarck was the "rational actor," permitted to make foreign policy decisions with few if any restraints from domestic society (the German General Staff, however, was another matter).

The one realist concept that Bismarck violated to Germany and history's regret, however, was making peacetime and frequently secret treaties with other great powers in Europe. During the "classical balance of power" (1648-1800), treaties were temporary arrangements of convenience, established in reaction to a challenge to the European balance of power and then terminating once the threat had passed and the balance restored. Bismarck, on the other hand, committed Germany to various secret and frequently contradictory agreements that nobody--not even Bismarck--could keep them all straight! Those peacetime treaties, along with the counter-treaties made by Germany's enemies, led directly and ineluctably to the guns of August 1914.(less)

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Dec 27, 2011 Joe rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Excellent biography of the most important statesman of the late 19th century. Everything about Bismarck was larger than life: his personality, his ambition, his opportunism, his ego, his power of persuasion, his ruthlessness, his political vision, his physical size, his tantrums, his gluttony, and even the colossal size of his chamber pot.

His career lasted so long (from the late 1840s to the early 1890s, that the book gives us a good overview of Prussian and German politics via the dominant figu...more

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May 25, 2011 William Ramsay rated it 3 of 5 stars

I didn't finish this. Steinberg's premise was a good one. How did Bismark, who was not rich or well connected or a military man or even elected to any office, end up first unifying and then ruling Germany for thirty years? And he does a fairly good of explaining this up to a point. I think the point was reached when my eyes glazed over. I thought it was very boring. The most interesting revelation was that Bismark was six four and towered over everyone. It's a revelation because in all drawings...more

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Oct 04, 2011 Gobasso rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography, history

I could not think of a better description of the "Prussian" personality than this book. Bismarck was ruthless, single minded, prejudiced and unquestioning of his personal belief system. A true machiavellian. A sad tale. Especially when you realize that the government he devised was defunct for only 14 years when it was resurrected by the Nazi's. As Steinberg points out it did not have to be so. To our sorrow it was. I had been looking for a good biography of this important historical figure for...more

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May 11, 2013 Eddy Allen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: arts-and-historical

This riveting, New York Times bestselling biography illuminates the life of Otto von Bismarck, 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 o...more

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Sep 28, 2012 Jenn rated it 4 of 5 stars

I read this book on the Kindle, which made the format of the book a little difficult to get through, as the author frequently (REALLY frequently) quotes contemporary sources. While that lends a real air of authenticity to the book, it can be a little annoying and at times it just felt like I was reading quotes and not a book.

That being said, the book seems really well researched and provides a vivid picture of Bismarck and the politics of the time. There were so many people and names and sometim...more

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Apr 12, 2012 Marks54 rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a very detailed biography of Otto von Bismarck. Who was he? The individual who made possible the formation of the German Empire in 1871 - and by doing so completely altered the course of European and world history since then. Without Bismarck, you do not have the chain of events that led to World War I. Without World War I, you don't have World War II, etc. I am not a believer in a "Great Man" school of history, but if you had to pick someone in the past two centuries who did exercise a...more

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Nov 21, 2011 Darren rated it 3 of 5 stars

The book was a tough read at a parts. Especially when dealing with some of Bismarck's political battles, but overall I'd say it was worth the time. I now know 100% more about mid 19th century Germany than I did before reading this book. I'd of course heard about Bismarck, and faintly remembered that he'd unified Germany, but other than that, nothing.

I can now say that I have a much better understanding of modern Germany and better insights on the underpinnings of WWI. The more I read about Germ...more

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Nov 08, 2011 Glenda rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I learned a great deal about a period in German history about which I knew little. The author's opinion of Bismarck and the events of his times can sometimes get in the way of the reader forming their own opinion from facts presented. Since I knew little of Bismarck before reading the book, I give Steinberg the benefit of the doubt, however, as to whether his opinions are accurate. I was surprised by the amount of antisemitism present in Bismark's time. Overall a good read. I would recommend it....more

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Oct 22, 2011 Elliot Schnapp rated it 3 of 5 stars

If only Steinberg could write. To say his prose is turgid is an understatement. Also persists in using the first person ("I discovered" "in my opinion" "as I delved further into the matter"), which I found utterly inappropriate in a biography. Presumes familiarity with persons and events in mid 19th century Prussia that I doubt many of his readers will have. His gross shortcomings as a writer are quite unfortunate because the content in much of the book is quite strong, particularly once the nar...more

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Elliot Schnapp If only Steinberg could write. To say his prose is turgid is an understatement. Also persists in using the first person ("I discovered" "in my opinion...more
Oct 11, 2011 06:02pm

Elliot Schnapp If only Steinberg could write. To say his prose is turgid is an understatement. Also persists in using the first person ("I discovered" "in my opinion...more
Oct 11, 2011 06:09pm

Nov 16, 2012 Craig Fiebig rated it 3 of 5 stars

Very important book for students of history or diplomacy. What drove this man, where did he help Germany and in what ways did he fail himself, his friends, his country and his Emperor. In the end he trained the entire volk to need and wait for Hitler to lead them and millions into tragedy.

Three stars because the writing was a bit of a slog to get through but worth the effort in the end.

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Oct 14, 2011 Ron rated it 4 of 5 stars

Very detailed history of 19th century Europe and the political turmoil and intregues that lead to the rise of Bismarck as head of the German government. Good insight into the class structure that existed in Europe during that era and especially the decline of the great royal families and the rise of dictatorships. Good book with lots of personalities, facts and figures.

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Oct 09, 2011 Lynne rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography

It may not be easy to write a a biography, but I've read so many good ones that I'm not forgiving of this author's inability to exclude ephemera. Bismarck was a giant of the times and it makes no sense to think your can or should include every associate he had, along with their correspondence and dinner menus. Steinberg is a good historian, but a poor author.

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Sep 22, 2011 Vladimir rated it 5 of 5 stars

Bismarck was ahead of his time politically, in the worst possible ways. He died long ago, in the service of a country that no longer exists. So it's possible to study him and see the dark side of the modern power-hungry administrative state without getting caught up in partisan sentimentality.

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Aug 07, 2011 Andy Walker added it · review of another edition

Well-written in-depth biography of the most influential politician of the 19th century. From German unification to the kulturkampf, it's all here: a novel-like invocation of a tyrannical genius, a statesman gambler and superb, waspish, wit.

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Dec 13, 2011 Carlo Cristofori rated it 5 of 5 stars

Could never make heads or tails of Bismarck and his supposed genius, no matter how hard I tried, or how many books I read. This one finally illuminates it all. A book of the first water, a real masterpiece of history writing, a book for all time.

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Feb 25, 2012 Taylor Kniphfer rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: history

A great book on the genius-statesman who unified and built up Germany in the nineteenth century. A brutal tyrant, a cold, distant family man, a contemptful master, and an unloving child all come together to make a harsh, decitful, and a rageful individual. But the great theme was Bismarck's powerlessness. The man who unified Germany and transformed European history chose for his epitaph the truest statement of his career: 'A loyal servant of Kaiser Wilhelm I'.

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Jul 08, 2011 David rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography, european-history, 19th-century, history, political-science

Not a terribly perceptive nor compelling read...but adequate. Useful for the novice Germanophile but nothing that hasn't been covered elsewhere and in some cases much better. Still, a mildly interesting read.

If you've access to nothing else on Bismarck this is worth a go.

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Jun 16, 2012 Christopher Shevlin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Interesting, especially about his early life and his odd relationship with the Kaiser, but often confusing and really badly let down by a lack of basic proofreading (at least in the Kindle edition I read).

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