Kaiser and His Times

by Michael Leonard Graham Balfour

Book Overview

What did it mean for Germany, and the world, to have William II on the throne for the First World War? In The Kaiser and His Times, Michael Balfour analyzes the social, constitutional, and economic forces at work in imperial Germany, and sets the complex and disputed character of the Kaiser, who occupied such a central position in the three decades before 1918, in the context of his family background and the history of Germany.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393006611
• ISBN13: 9780393006612
• Release Date: November 1972
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 560 Pages
• Weight: 1.08 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 5.5" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

King of Fools

A tad on the dry side for the average reader, this scholarly account of the Kaiser clearly explains the influences that came to bear on the man--his family history, his personality and the society in which he lived. Just as his grandmother, Queen Victoria, embodied 19th century Britain, Kaiser Wilhelm II was Germany at the turn of the century. His behavior was in keeping with the beliefs and expectations of the Prussian upper class. Although he is not fully responsible for World War I, his flaws were the flaws that lead his country into World War I. This book is a good account of one of history's great failures.