Iron kingdom The rise and downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947

There are already several perfectly serviceable histories of Prussia. But this beautifully written and brilliantly argued longer study will reward scholars, students, and educated laypeople who invest the time to read it. Aside from an early obligatory section on early modern Brandenburg-Prussia's lands and peoples, the volume's 17 chapters proceed chronologically. Each chapter is subdivided thematically, with carefully (though unpredictably) chosen vignettes serving as a platform for an endless succession of original, provocative insights. Indeed, despite the volume's size, Clark (Cambridge) makes no attempt to provide a comprehensive narrative of major events, let alone digressive excursions into collateral events and developments in individual provinces like Silesia, the Rhineland, or East Prussia. Instead, his focus is firmly fixed on Prussia as a larger entity and concept. If there is a central thesis lurking somewhere in the riveting narrative, it is that Prussia represented a great deal more than the ugly archetype that the Allies dismembered after WW II. Yes, the dynasty, military, and conservative political culture and institutions played a role in the German catastrophe, but Prussia was also a modernizing force that has been judged guilty by association with certain dominant forces within it and, of course, the Austrian madman who drove it to destruction. Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries. C. Ingrao Purdue University