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A review by michaelcox12
Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947 by Christopher Clark
3.0
As a fan of dense historical reads, after visiting Klaipeda this year I really wanted to enjoy a deep dive into Prussian history. While this book provided a fairly comprehensive review of this power, it never quite gripped me with its story-telling. It jumps around the timeline quite a bit and spends large sections describing the culture and social aspects without tying them into an overall story as well as I would like as a reader.
The entire time you know where this is heading, to the world wars and the Nazi regime, but the post-unification section is disappointingly short and is written mostly to try and separate this period from the previous 300 years. I found the period from 1600-1830 to be the most interesting in understanding Prussian culture and the unique spot they found themselves in Europe during this time period.
The entire time you know where this is heading, to the world wars and the Nazi regime, but the post-unification section is disappointingly short and is written mostly to try and separate this period from the previous 300 years. I found the period from 1600-1830 to be the most interesting in understanding Prussian culture and the unique spot they found themselves in Europe during this time period.