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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 of evangelical Protestantism who secularized schools and introduced civil divorce. Bismarck may have been in sheer ability the most intelligent man to direct a great state in modern times. His brilliance and insight dazzled his contemporaries. But all agreed there was also something demonic, diabolical, and overwhelming in Bismarck's personality. He was a kind of malign genius who, behind the various postures, concealed an ice-cold contempt for his fellow human beings and a drive to control and rule them. As one contemporary noted: "the Bismarck regime was a constant orgy of scorn and abuse of mankind, collectively and individually."
A brilliant study in power, this comprehensive biography brings Bismarck to life, revealing the stark contrast between the "Iron Chancellor's" unmatched political skills and his profoundly flawed human character.
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 of evangelical Protestantism who secularized schools and introduced civil divorce. Bismarck may have been in sheer ability the most intelligent man to direct a great state in modern times. His brilliance and insight dazzled his contemporaries. But all agreed there was also something demonic, diabolical, and overwhelming in Bismarck's personality. He was a kind of malign genius who, behind the various postures, concealed an ice-cold contempt for his fellow human beings and a drive to control and rule them. As one contemporary noted: "the Bismarck regime was a constant orgy of scorn and abuse of mankind, collectively and individually."
A brilliant study in power, this comprehensive biography brings Bismarck to life, revealing the stark contrast between the "Iron Chancellor's" unmatched political skills and his profoundly flawed human character.
Jonathan Steinberg is the Walter H. Annenberg Professor of Modern European History at the University of Pennsylvania, and Emeritus Fellow, Trinity Hall, Cambridge. His books include Yesterday's Deterrent: Tirpitz and the Birth of the German Battle Fleet and All or Nothing: The Axis and the Holocaust 1941 - 1943.
"...Bismarck: A Life is the best study of its subject in the
English language." -- Henry A. Kissinger, New York Times Book
Review
"Fascinating biography...Mr. Steinberg breathes more life into
Bismarck than any other biographer, thanks to an unusual scholarly
method: He shifts the normal balance between analysis and evidence
decisively in favor of the latter...The result is riveting, and we
experience Bismarck as a hulking, breathing presence." --The Wall
Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal "Book of the Year" selection ("[T]he best
biography of the Iron Chancellor to date." --Simon Sebag
Montefiore)
"A first-rate biography that combines a standard historical
narrative with an intriguing account of Bismarck as a
personality...Bismarck offers a fresh and compelling portrait of a
fascinating character." -- ForeignAffairs.com"Bismarck: A Life is a
readable, engrossing...biography about the father of the
Fatherland, a man who made Germany and remade Europe without a
mandate, a crown or an army." -- Dallas Morning News"This is the
best one-volume life of Bismarck in English, much superior to older
works. It brings us close to this galvanic, contradictory and
ultimately self-destructive figure...Steinberg has an eye for
details...and a talent for reconstructing the political drama of
the period."-- The Guardian"Steinberg...brings a fresh perspective
to the subject in a single volume whose insights and presentation
make it no less canonical than its predecessors." --Publishers
Weekly, Starred Review
"Jonathan Steinberg's magnificent biography brings out the
monstrous egotism of Bismarck more clearly than anyone before
him...Steinberg has brilliantly transformed this man of 'blood and
irony' into a tragic figure worthy to be compared with Goethe's
Faust." -- New Criterion
"The Bismarck story is an oft-told one, and oft-told with a
political or social agenda guiding the biographer's pen. Otto
Pflanze's magisterial 1990 three-volume work set a new standard for
Bismarck biographies and, more recently, Edgar Feuchtwanger's
'Imperial Germany 1850-1918' moved us beyond the standard Bismarck
mythology. Jonathan Steinberg's 'Bismarck: A Life' fits neatly into
this estimable body of work as a serious, politically detached,
study...Steinberg's analysis achieves a degree of personal and
political objectivity while avoiding an oversimplification of his
political and governmental achievements...his purpose is neither to
praise nor vilify the statesman. Rather, he aims to understand and
explain Bismarck's profound success story: his brilliant strategies
and tactics in bringing together the German states into a unified
polity. In this, 'Bismarck: A Life' is a success story itself." --
Forward "Portrays a fascinating picture of Germany, as well as its
culture and politics...Jonathan Steinberg's biography is timely and
necessary...Steinberg has written a compelling, readable and
important book." -- Jerusalem Post
"If scholars and history buffs want to meet Bismarck in flesh and
blood, they need go no further. Steinberg's integration of
psychological insights and Bismarck's political strategies yields a
worthy biography." -- Booklist
"Those with a serious interest in the subject will find it an
intriguing one-volume addition to existing long works on Bismarck."
-- Library Journal
"The best biography of the Iron Chancellor to date." -- Simon Sebag
Montefiore, Wall Street Journal"The book will probably become the
standard work in English for some time to come. Essential." --
Choice
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