Ruthless, cynical, arrogant, brilliant, supremely dedicated to a rigid concept of duty and a vast dream of grandeur, Otto von Bismarck guided Germany to greatness and stood guard over the peace of Europe while planting the seeds of future destruction.

Born in 1815 to a stolid Junker father and a fiercely ambitious mother, the young Bismarck showed little ability as a student, government clerk or soldier. It was only at age thirty, with his first taste of political power as a delegate to a provincial assembly, that his destiny became clear.

The task he set himself was enormous: to unify Germany under a Prussian monarch at a time when Germany lay hopelessly divided, the Prussian king was weak and liberalism was on the rise. Yet by 1871, after a meteoric rise in the Prussian foreign service, three perfectly engineered wars and an ingenious series of diplomatic moves, Bismarck saw William I crowned Emperor of Germany, and himself appointed Chancellor.

What came to be known as the Age of Bismarck was an era of sharp paradox. The man who had based his policy on "blood and iron" now designed a peace that lasted forty years. The arch-enemy of socialism gave the German workers unrivaled economic benefits. The harsh nationalist became famed for his cosmopolitan wit and glittering hospitality. But even this master politician magician could not prevent the death of the Old Emperor and the crowning of a headstrong new ruler, and the man who had guided Germany to greatness was forced to spend his last years out of office, helplessly watching his life's work being undone.

From the dust jacket