TY - BOOK AU - Hoyer,Katja TI - Blood and iron: the rise and fall of the German Empire, 1871-1918 SN - 9781643138374 PY - 2021/// CY - New York PB - Pegasus Books KW - Nationalism KW - Imperialism KW - Germany KW - History KW - 1871-1918 KW - Politics and government KW - Social conditions N1 - Includes bibliographical references (pages 241-247) and index; Introduction --; Rise 1815-71 --; Bismarck's reich 1871-88 --; Three emperors and a chancellor 1888-90 --; Wilhelm's reich 1890-1914 --; Catastrophe 1914-18 --; Conclusions: the end? N2 - "Before 1871, Germany was not yet a 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"-- Provided by publisher ER -