Young Wilhelm
Young Wilhelm
£44.99
GBPThis rich and compelling volume describes the life of Kaiser Wilhelm II from his birth in 1859 to his accession to the Prusso-German throne in 1888, a story so extraordinary that it will fascinate anyone interested in the psychology and the throng of personalities of the period. Its aim is to set the characters on the stage and let them speak for themselves, which in their letters and diaries the Victorians and Wilhelminians did with quite extraordinary clarity and persuasive power. The central theme is the bitter conflict between the handicapped Prince and his liberal parents, and in particular with his mother, the eldest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, and the utter failure of a daring educational experiment intended to turn the young Prince into a liberal Anglophile.
- One of the most deeply researched and stylishly written scholarly biographies of recent times
- An incomparably rich and absorbing analysis of the Kaiser's upbringing and psychology, and of the extraordinary range of personalities surrounding him
- Translated expertly under the author's guidance from the German edition which sold in many tens of thousands of copies
Reviews & endorsements
Review of the hardback: 'It is a masterpiece … enthrallingly readable.' Niall Ferguson, The Sunday Times
Review of the hardback: 'Röhl's biography is a stunning achievement by any yardstick, a definitive work which breaks new ground.' The Times Higher Education Supplement
Review of the hardback: '… the definitive biography of Germany's last Emperor. No other scholar has Röhl's command of the sources or his deep commitment to understanding Wilhelm's place in history'. James J. Sheehan, The Times Literary Supplement
Review of the hardback: '… a masterpiece … shows just how compelling and how readable academic history can be.' Charlotte Zeepvat, Royalty Digest
Review of the hardback: '… Röhl tells a morbidly fascinating story will skill and impeccable scholarship.' The Court Historian
Review of the hardback: 'The morbid charm of Europe's high nobility has evidently cast its spell over the author. Not only their love affairs but also their illnesses exert a quite irresistible attraction … His account of the Crown Prince's fatal illness of cancer of the larynx, which dominates the last 200 pages of the book … must be the most exact medical record ever written by a historian.' Volker Ulrich, Die Zeit
Review of the hardback: 'It is unlikely that another biography of Wilhelm II will ever surpass the level of detail or the depth of archival knowledge Röhl has achieved.' Isabel V. Hull, Journal of Modern History
Product details
March 2017Paperback
9781107565968
998 pages
247 × 174 × 39 mm
1.69kg
32 b/w illus.
Available
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Table of Contents
- Preface to the English edition
- Introduction to the German edition
- 1. Birth trauma: 'It's alive and it's a prince'
- 2. Disorder and early sorrow
- 3. Ambivalent motherhood
- 4. An English princess at the Prussian court
- 5. Blood and history
- 6. Education fit for a king
- 7. The doctor
- 8. Trials and tribulations
- 9. Experiment in Kassel
- 10. Spring dreams and awakening
- 11. Coming of age
- 12. The student prince
- 13. A question of balance: the inner-ear illness of Kaiser Wilhelm II
- 14. Cabal and love
- 15. Estrangement
- 16. Politics
- 17. First steps in foreign affairs: Prince Wilhelm between England and Russia
- 18. Eros and Austria
- 19. 'W. W. W.': Wilhelm-Wedel-Waldersee
- 20. Prince Wilhelm and the Battenberg conspiracy
- 21. The crown prince's nightmares
- 22. The gradual seizure of power
- 23. Waldersee and the world conflagration
- 24. The edge of darkness: the crown prince on the eve of catastrophe
- 25. The flight of the crown prince in the face of death
- 26. Prince Wilhelm and Queen Victoria's Jubilee
- 27. Crisis in San Remo
- 28. The Stoecker meeting and the break with the Bismarcks
- 29. Prince Wilhelm and the war party
- 30. Preparing for power
- 31. The macabre race for the throne
- 32. Impotence and agony
- Notes
- List of archival sources
- List of books cited
- Index.
