The Ailing Empire: Germany from Bismarck to Hitler

Using his skills as a journalist, historian, and memoirist, Sebastian Haffner (author of The Meaning of Hitler) traces the development of the German Empire (1871-1945) and the central role of warfare that characterized the Reich. Haffner contends that Germany’s unfavorable geographic position had much to do with the state’s belligerence and that, from its inception, created the conflicts that culminated in two world wars.

“The fruit of decades of study, the moving and sometimes very personal...