Bismarck

The Man and the Statesman

By: A.J.P. Taylor

Narrated by: Nigel Patterson

In this compelling biography, historian A. J. P. Taylor reevaluates Bismarck's motives and methods, focusing on the chancellor's rise to power in the 1860s and his removal from office in 1890.

©1955 A. J. P. Taylor (P)2017 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Mr. Taylor has performed the difficult task of compressing the most earth-shaking career between Napoleon and Hitler into fewer than 300 pages with conspicuous success." ( Times Literary Supplement)

Excellent book

The writing and narration are excellent. The book assumes you know basic history of the time, which I did not. However, by pausing and looking up a few things, I was able to understand. Getting a sense as to who Bismarck was as an individual was excellent.

surprisingly good

considering the mediocre reviews this books received online, I found it interesting, well paced, and reasonably balanced

Great narration

The narrator makes a great effort to pronounce foreign works and names correctly. He did an excellent job.

Not what I expected

I have read many biographies including Churchill, Neopoleon, Grant, Hoover, Eisenhower and more
this does not follow the norm. Typically we learn of the subect's early years and the formation of the person and the leaderl they become. We learn of either privilege or austere up bringings and how these form their decisions later in life. Most writers bring life to their subject with clever stories, opionions and insight. This book does none of that. it jumps in and has all the depth and passion of a business journal I can't recommend this book.

A Best-in-Class Biography

AJP Taylor is a tremendous historian and an excellent writer. I have surveyed all major works on German history during this period and consider this the best available Audible title for two specific reasons having to do with Taylor’s understanding of the topic and his approach to history itself.

Reason #1:
Sometimes a good writer will jump into a topic and write a book in a short period of time which doesn’t have the depth of thought to reflect the depth of the subject. That is not the case with Taylor and this time period. He has spent his whole career doing groundbreaking research on the geopolitics of the period and has written several books on German history before and after this time. This gives him the subject matter expertise on the time and space to do this right.

Reason #2:
Another fundamental aspect of this book I enjoyed was Taylor’s recognition that what is now the well-documented past was once the unpredictable future. This comes across on every page of this book. Nowhere is it assumed that X event will happen a year after Y decision. All decisions are discussed in the mindset of a person with only the information available at that time. The flawed theories of today were once the best known explanations of yesterday and Taylor is respectful of that uncertainty in all his subjects’ minds.

These two aspects of Taylor’s writing stand out to make this a simply marvelous work.

I can only hope Audible will record all AJP Taylor’s other works, especially “the Course of German History”.

Good, but read a primer first

a good history, written with wit and attention to detail, but absolutely dense with minute and somewhat opaque historical references a newcomer to Bismarck will have practically no way of understanding. Those hoping for more personal, anecdotal material may also be disappointed. This is a work that keeps the focus strictly on the minutiae of Bismarck's domestic and foreign intrigues. In the end, one gets a clear sense of the statesman, but perhaps not the man. His close political allies, associates and other contemporaries are also extremely submerged in this account. One doesn't get a sense of how he interacted with these people on a personal level. Only the great chancellor and William 1 truly occupy the stage in this telling. To get the most out of this book requires a robust and broad understanding of the period and it's principal actors; a deep dive for those looking for a blow by blow account of his intricate, behind the scenes policy manouevers. A little dry, slighly myopic at times, but a solid work.

Very educational

I learned as much about European history as I did about Bismarck and how all of it mirrors today’s politics.

A very good overview

This is a good introduction to Bismarck. Vital to understanding modern Germany and Europe. We mostly get the British version of European history. It's refreshing to get other points of view.

Nice info

Some parts of this biography are a bit vague especially for someone uninformed of 19th century, but overall it is a solid biography about a great man!

Definitely technical, but also excellent

This was my first experience with AJP Taylor. Not a typical biography with a firm narrative structure, but an excellent study in the great man’s character and decision making. A little knowledge about the period and some of the players is probably helpful, but if you’ve got that, it’s a great listen.