The Critic Magazine

The making of a maelstrom

Blood and Iron: The Rise and Fall of the German Empire 1871-1918 by Katja Hoyer History Press, £12

YET ANOTHER STUDY OF THE drift into World War I might seem unnecessary, but Katja Hoyer’s book is unusual for being written in excellent English by a German historian settled in Britain. The result neither excuses nor apologises for German nationalism and is remarkably free from the usual blame games. Hoyer does not excavate any new archives and relies entirely on published sources, but she synthesises them remarkably well and tells her story with passion and verve.

Her hero is the Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, whose quote about “blood and iron” explains both the rise and fall

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