Short Synopsis
Iron Kingdom is a definitive, gripping account of Prussia's fascinating, influential, and critical role in modern times.

Full Synopsis
In the aftermath of World War II, Prussia—a centuries-old state pivotal to Europe's development—ceased to exist. In their eagerness to erase all traces of the Third Reich from the earth, the Allies believed that Prussia, the very embodiment of German militarism, had to be abolished. But as Christopher Clark reveals in this pioneering history, Prussia's legacy is far more complex.

What we find is a kingdom that existed nearly half a millennium ago as a patchwork of territorial fragments, with neither significant resources nor a coherent culture. With its capital in Berlin, Prussia grew from being a small, poor, disregarded medieval state into one of the most vigorous and powerful nations in Europe. Iron Kingdom traces Prussia's involvement in the continent's foundational religious and political conflagrations: from the devastations of the Thirty Years War through centuries of political machinations to the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, from the enlightenment of Frederick the Great to the destructive conquests of Napoleon, and from the "iron and blood" policies of Bismarck to the creation of the German Empire in 1871, and all that implied for the tumultuous twentieth century.

"The voice work by Shaun Grindell is excellent. . . . With plenty of popular appeal in the erudition, European history buffs will feast on this one." ---Library Journal Audio Review

"Iron Kingdom, Christopher Clark’s stately, authoritative history of Prussia from its humble beginnings to its ignominious end, presents a much more complicated and compelling picture of the German state, which is too often reduced to a caricature of spiked helmets and polished boots." ---New York Times

"This book ranks as the best history of Prussia currently available in any language. . . . it is written with a literary finesse and narrative elan that establish its author as one of the finest writers of history at work in Britain today." ---Sunday Times

"This book can . . . be read for sheer pleasure . . . It is the pleasure of discovery that Christopher Clark offers in this account of the rise and fall of Prussia." ---New York Sun

"From the military and agricultural innovations of Frederick the Great to nineteenth-century high academic politics to Bismarck’s social-security system, this magisterial and remarkably well-written history of Prussia traces back to the eighteenth century the region’s surprisingly tolerant and intellectually rich culture." ---The Atlantic