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A review by braendy
Blood and Iron: The Rise and Fall of the German Empire 1871–1918 by Katja Hoyer
4.0
Rating it four stars for doing what it sets out to do very well - laying out a concise, structured telling of the rise and fall of Wilhelmine Germany. I listened to the whole thing as an audio book on a long drive and never once got bored with it, which is quite a feat in itself.
One detail I did find a bit jarring is that the focus stays very much on the political, and while I might be wrong in this assessment as this is the first I've read of Hoyer's work, I found her judgement of more-than-controversial political figures - such as Wilhelm II - very lenient in some places. There is a notable lack of in-depth treatment of social issues, and in this vein, an abridged glossing over of Germany's colonial history that bothered me quite a bit.
Overall, though, a solid piece of scholarship. But I have to ask - just who keeps designing the covers for these things and getting away with it?
One detail I did find a bit jarring is that the focus stays very much on the political, and while I might be wrong in this assessment as this is the first I've read of Hoyer's work, I found her judgement of more-than-controversial political figures - such as Wilhelm II - very lenient in some places. There is a notable lack of in-depth treatment of social issues, and in this vein, an abridged glossing over of Germany's colonial history that bothered me quite a bit.
Overall, though, a solid piece of scholarship. But I have to ask - just who keeps designing the covers for these things and getting away with it?