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Title: Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947
ISBN: 0674023854
Author:
Christopher Clark
Publicate Date: 2006-09-29
Publish: 2006-09-29
List Price: $35.00
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $22.12
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $20.00
Amazon Merchant Price: $23.10
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Overall, pretty decent work.
I read a lot of history books, but I don't review very many. In fact, I think this is only my second review of a history text. I think it's because I don't want to come across looking like an idiot since I'm only an amateur historian. :D
However, Iron Kingdom was so good that it inspired me to write something here. I bought this book purely for research purposes, but once I started reading, I devoured not only the chapters relevant to the time period I was researching, but the entire book. Clark has an engaging way of writing that kept me up late several nights, thinking, 'Okay, just a couple more pages, then I'll go to sleep'. Maybe I'm just odd, but I got as much enjoyment and suspense out of reading this as I do from works of fiction.
The only real gripe I have is that Clark tended to gloss over large chunks of time and events. I realize this is going to happen in a work of this magnitude; if he'd gone into minute detail on every bit of the three and a half centuries the book covers, we would've had a 1500 hundred page book instead of the already hefty 680 pages (not including notes and bibliography). And maybe that's actually a good thing; by keeping the narrative flowing, my interest was more than engaged from beginning to end. But still, I wanted a little more in certain parts...
Overall, from my layman's perspective, Iron Kingdom was a very worthwhile read, and I'll definitely be referring to it and re-reading it time and again.
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2: Outstanding
I will say it again this book was outstanding. This is one of the best historical works I have ever read. Clark is an eminent scholar and an excellent writer as well. This book offers the reader a wealth of knowledge and information in a style that is both eloquent and entertaining.
One of the things that most struck me about this book was the level of intimacy with which the author writes about the different figures and times. The author's level of erudition is such that the reader feels as though they are reading a contemporary account of events rather than a work written 300 years after the fact. The author's knowledge and scholarly dedication allows the author to write with an authority that comes through very clearly, and it is this authority that gives this work so much power.
The author's style made this, rather large, work an easy and enjoyable read. The pages simply turn themselves. Not only does the author have a very readable style, but his prose and ability to turn phrases would rival any literary work. As someone who has read a few history books, quite a few of which were rather dry, it is rare to find an author who knows his subject this thoroughly and is also a talented writer as well.
What I really like about these types of histories (when they are done well that is) is that they give the reader a broader perspective. Instead of taking a particular figure or moment in history and studying it in isolation, detached from earlier influential events, the reader gets to see history as a continuous, free flowing force that affects individuals and whole nations alike. If you want to understand German history or Prussian history this book is a must because the author not only hits major historical events but speaks on the philosophical undercurrents that drove those events. Mr. Clark writes in great detail about how events such as the enlightenment influenced Prussian leaders and the state.
This is an amazing work that should be on anyone's reading list who is interested in Prussian or European history. It is indispensable.
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3: A good overview of Prussian history
For those of us who just had a general idea about how Prussia expanded from a provincial backwater (Brandenburg) into one of the most formidable power players in Europe, Christopher Clark's welcome and detailed history of Prussia fills in the blanks.
Brandenburg was a landlocked territory in central Europe, with few resources, no coastline, and well-trampled by foreign armies coming and going. How did this modest electorate become the power that it became? Clark writes thoroughly about how Brandenburg survived and grew, especially through the efforts of Frederick William (The Great Elector) and Frederick the Great. The latter's invasion of Silesia turned the power balance of central Europe upside down, with Austria no longer having full hegemony over that region.
As with most modern histories, Clark tries to give us a new way of looking at the stereotypes, in this case the equating of Prussia with militarism which is so ingrained. In some respects he is a bit too revisionist, but he does paint a broader picture of Prussian culture and also why a strong military was absolutely vital for Prussian survival. Clark portrays Prussia as progressive in many ways and not just a military camp posing as a nation-state.
Having acquired or conquered places like Silesia, Saxony and Pomerania, greater Prussia was a mish-mash of nationalities, not the pure German state that it is sometimes portrayed to be. The maps at the front of the book show how far flung the nation became, and how much more difficult it became to keep it secure. During the Napoleonic Wars Clark shows how Prussia's geography put it in an impossible situation, right along France's invasion route to Russia. Much of what Bismarck accomplished later in the century was to prevent Prussia from ever becoming that vulnerable again.
It's heavy reading at times, but there are many chapters than can be read separately when the reader chooses, especially those that have to do with social and cultural issues. Overall there is a lot of detailed Prussian history here that will enlighten the history buff and give a fresh perspective to this topic.
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4: An excellent, very readable history
This book was fascinating. It was incredibly interesting to read how a country with few natural resources rose to become one of the most powerful in Europe--and then disappeared without a trace after WWII. The author writes extremely well and has produced a very readable book. I recommend it very highly.
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5: Truly the History of Brandenberg and Central Europe
Most people think of Prussia as this monolithic kingdom that grew like a cancer in central europe for three hundred years. In reality, it was Brandenberg and the Hohenzollens that created a myth and an empire. Prussia was never more than the far eastern province (and an agrarian one to boot) of what became the German Empire in 1871. In point of fact, Prussia was never part of the "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation", but the remains of the lands of the "Teutonic Knights" who settled the land in the 1400s so as to 'civilize and christianize' the savage pagan prussians who lived in the area.
Since Brandenberg was an Elector-ship in the HRE, and the first king in the Hohenzollen line was "King in Prussia", the title and name stuck. For most Germans, those in the area of current Germany, Prussians were a stock character like Vermonters or Iowans. A little bit odd and definitely not very cultured. They were always pictured as a comical figure in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, even in Berlin.
Now, Prussia is the major part of northern Poland, though all the names have been polonized and most of the history obliterated. But then the area around Stettin (Szczecin) which was Swedish Pomerania, doesn't show any of it's earlier history either.
Like so many myths, Prussia was a 'fantasy', and it was created by men like Bismarck and Goebbels to serve a purpose as a rallying cry. Like most myths there was some truth to the story, but it was twisted in so many ways to fit the myth, to be unrecognizable. The strength of the story is the 'story behind the story' which is very well represented here. But you will not find a 'military history' here, but the history of a culture and a dynasty.
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