The German Empire owed its existence to a 'revolution from above' but in time its citizens came to perceive it as the embodiment of the German nation state. The power of the Prusso-German state - with its outward splendour and military pageantry, and with the prestige that it began to enjoy within the system of European states - gradually came to outweigh older, more broadly based traditions of cultural identity.

The studies in this book are the harvest of more than 20 years intensive research into the history of the German Empire by one of Germany's leading historians. Taken together, they offer a cogent analysis of the main developments and issues in a formative and portentous period of Germany's history.