IGX

Decent review:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/ ... anreview10

Goodreads link:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4999.Iron_Kingdom

Cool book. It covers the 350yr history of Prussia so it is more a survey than a detailed history. However, he does offer a very useful revision of the prevailing English and US Eastern Seaboard WASP view of Prussia. Namely, that its militaristic xenpophobic and anti-semitic sensibilities (typified by the East Prussian Junker Class) was the cause of both world wars.

This consensus opinion is completely untenable. It is actual propaganda for the cold blooded English decision to destroy Germany because it posed the only real threat to English commercial dominance. Hooray Churchill!

Clark doesn't go as far as he should, or I dis above, but he does refute Prussian militarism and subservience to power. And he does point out how it was the Prussians who created the modern social safety nets we all take for granted.

My favorite part was how he has broken free from the shitlib assumption that the move from a Monarchy to a centralized trans-national and professional bureaucracy is a guarantor of wiser decisions and greater protection of the populace from oppression.

The examples are Hardenburg and the Bismark. Both withdrew power from the King to seek advice from a Privy Council under the guise of "freeing" him from the battle for his attention and mind. Of course, all this was, was a transfer of power from the King to a bureaucrat. And not coincidentally, a switch from Cabinet Wars to all out confrontations. Proving, as everyone knew way back in Ancient Greece, that Democracy is the most dangerous regime of all.