In this compelling biography, historian A. J. P. Taylor reevaluates Bismarck's motives and methods, focusing on the chancellor's rise to power in the 1860s and his removal from office in 1890.

It is known that the plan to elect a Prussian prince to the Spanish throne was the proximate, and Bismarck's "Ems telegram" an immediate cause of the war of 1870. But much has remained obscure about the roles of the principal figures. Lawrence Steefel fills in the lacunae with secret German documents available only after World War II, including the correspondence between Bismarck and Marshal Prim of Spain. It becomes clear that Bismarck did not initiate...

Otto von Bismarck transformed Europe more completely than anybody in the nineteenth century, except for Napoleon. He unified, and indeed, created, the country at the center of two world wars that would transform the world. This biography illuminates the life of the statesman who unified Germany but who also embodied everything brutal and ruthless about Prussian culture. The author draws heavily on contemporary writings, allowing Bismarck's friends...