Author Description

<p>Imperial Germany focuses on the domestic political developments of the period, putting them into context through a balanced guide to the economic and social background, culture and foreign policy.</p> <p>This important study explores the tensions caused within an empire which was formed through war, against the prevailing liberal spirit of the age and poses many questions among them:</p> <p>* Was the desire to unify Germany the cause of the aggressive foreign policy leading to the First World War?<br> * To what extent was Bismarck's Second Reich the forerunner of Hitler's Third?<br> * Did Bismarck's authoritarian rule permanently hinder the political development of Germany?</p> <p>Recent debates raised by German scholarship are made accessible to English speaking readers, and the book summarises the important controversies and competing interpretations of imperial German history.</p>