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Blood and Iron

The Rise and Fall of the German Empire 1871-1918

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Blood and Iron

By: Katja Hoyer
Narrated by: Kristin Atherton
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About this listen

In a unique study of five decades that changed the course of modern history, Katja Hoyer tells the story of the German Empire from its violent beginnings to its calamitous defeat in the First World War.

Before 1871, Germany was not a nation but an idea. Its founder, Otto von Bismarck, had a formidable task at hand. How would he bring thirty-nine individual states under the yoke of a single Kaiser, convincing proud Prussians, Bavarians and Rhinelanders to become Germans? Once united, could the young European nation wield enough power to rival the empires of Britain and France—all without destroying itself in the process?

©2021 Katja Hoyer (P)2022 W. F. Howes Ltd 19th Century Europe Germany Modern Imperialism

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Critic reviews

"The best biography of the Second Reich in years.... It will undoubtedly become the essential account of this vitally important part of European history." (Andrew Roberts)
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Really enjoyed this book. It gives a sense of the achievement of uniting Germany in the 19th century, and how this changed the course of Europe.

Amazing book!

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What I found most interesting was how the Reich was not a dictatorship. An authoritarian state definitely but one where the elected Reichstag and popular opinion in the country had to be heeded first by Bismarck and later Wilhelm. A brisk fast-paced read that gives a clear picture of the country’s emergence as the dominant nation of continental Europe. Well worth a read.

Fascinating insight.

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Well written, well read and about interesting subject - if you like history books (like myself) you must be delighted with it.

Great audiobook

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Great book, and a decent narrator. BUT there is some minor background noises which is rather annoying. (And I am a person that is really bothered by this kind of stuff). But it serves as a great introduction to The Prussian Empire.

Great book BUT

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Great book, fascinating if you are interested in German history. The narration is not the best. .

Great book

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Extremely well written. narration was captivating.
Really enjoyed how it was broken down and explained. Outstanding book in all aspects.

very good read.

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great book on German history, made even better by amazing voiceover. I appreciate that she spoke German names and terms with German accent.

Awesome

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There isn’t much available on this topic on Audible, so I was delighted to see this as part of the Plus Catalogue. Overall the book is quite decent and the information, the historical facts, presented in the book is good and accurate as far as I can tell. However, sadly the book has been written by your average modern academic type with heavy ideological bias which leads to very faulty explanations to the historical events and especially the overall arc of history. it's not too bad in the first half of the book, but the latter half is full of ideological takes. The author tries to effect an air of objectivity, but presents all the stereotypical views about Germany and how the nation was bound to commit atrocities and to wage war. I do have to give credit for the author on how the beginning of WW1 is described though, the blame is not laid solely on Germany nor on the "warlike character" of the Germans.
Overall it was an enjoyable listen with good information, but be aware of the clear biases of the author. The narrator is decent although I would have preferred a male voice for such subject matter. I would recommend this to any history enthusiasts who are aware enough to be able to be critical of the conclusions of the author.

Good information, bad explanations

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it sounds as if it were read by a machine, what a pity for such a good book

poor reading

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Katja Hoyer has and issue of being German. She even admits that in first chapter.

Katja just does not know where is her head and where is her tail.

Be warn reader. Microsoft and Melimda-Belimda-Karlile patrol this section.

Author Suffers From Being German

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