![]() Clark argues that its military power was rooted in vulnerability – ‘Brandenburg-Prussia repeatedly stood on the brink of political extinction’ – and was balanced by enlightenment values that produced great works of art, religious tolerance and a modern civil administration. Iron Kingdom deftly captures the many contradictions of Prussia, a medieval backwater that became a major European power and the force behind the mighty German empire. The truth is that Prussia was a European state long before it became a German one. ![]() Its exquisite bindings are the work of eminent graphic artist and Folio favourite Neil Gower, with designs featuring the Order of the Black Eagle, the Pickelhaube (pointed helmet) and the Prussian coat of arms. Maps within the text clearly illustrate territorial changes, and each volume has 32 pages of carefully selected colour and black-and-white images – from paintings of Prussian royalty to political leaflets and vivid war photography. This two-volume Folio edition is beautifully presented and lavishly illustrated. In this masterful study, Christopher Clark argues for a more nuanced appraisal of the 350-year-old state that perished, unmourned, in the ashes of the Third Reich. For many Germans, ‘Prussia’ remains synonymous with everything repellent in German history: militarism, conquest, arrogance and illiberality.Īs Europe lay in ruins after the Second World War, Prussia abruptly ceased to exist – wiped off the map by the victorious Allies as the prime ‘bearer of militarism and reaction in Germany’.
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