Wilhelm II
Volume 2: Emperor and Exile, 1900-1941
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- $29.99
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- $29.99
Publisher Description
Wilhelm II (1859-1941), King of Prussia and German Emperor from 1888 to 1918, reigned during a period of unprecedented economic, cultural, and intellectual achievement in Germany. This volume completes Lamar Cecil's prize-winning scholarly biography of the Kaiser, one of modern history's most powerful--and most misunderstood--rulers.
As Cecil shows, Wilhelm's private life reflects a deeply troubled and very superficial man. But the book's larger focus is on Wilhelm as a head of state. Cecil traces the events of the years leading up to World War I, a period that offers ample evidence of the Kaiser's inept conduct of foreign affairs, especially relations with England. Once war broke out, his generals and statesmen kept him on the sidelines. He was dethroned on November 9, 1918, when a socialist republic was established in Berlin, and he fled in exile to Holland, where he resided for the remaining twenty-three years of his life, working energetically, but to no avail, for his restoration to the throne.
Originally published in 1996.
A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Callous, vain, easily bored and exceedingly foolish, Wilhelm II, the last German kaiser, was an isolated narcissist who preferred hunting or yachting on Norway's fjords to affairs of state. His tendency to make momentous policy decisions on the basis of vanity or personal pique alarmed his chief servant, Bismarck, and successive chancellors who were forced to operate within the kaiser's erratic whims. An anti-Semite who was highly suspicious of Catholics and hated socialists and radicals, Wilhelm disliked his mother, finding her Anglomania intolerable, and fought with his father, the Crown Prince. In this enlightening and disturbing portrait--the first half of a two-volume biography--Cecil, history professor at Washington and Lee University, carries the story through Wilhelm's obsessive rivalry with England, a country the kaiser criticized for its colonist ambitions even as he instigated a massive build-up of Germany's army and navy. Photos.
