Wonderfully set out description of Prussian history, that clarifies Central European history during some interesting centuries. Some nuggets:

- as always in history some great ironies: Frederick the Great couldn't stand his father, but hadn't it been for the army the old man left him, there would have been no more Prussia.

- hadn't realised how suddenly Prussian ascendance over Austria and France came about

- very interesting change in the course of the 19 C from the Prussian State including Jews and Poles to the German nation excluding them

If only all history could be this good

This book covers over 400 years of history. Prussia seems to have an undeserved reputation. It was a militarized country, but doesn't have the amounts of military that some of today's countries have. Mr. Clark says it is 3.8% of the population. I was interested to read that Prussia: integrated Jews much earlier than other German states, that it was given parts of the Rheinland when it gave up parts of Poland, that it had a war with Austria, and that it didn't always win.

This left me asking some serious questions. Why don't we speak German? The Prussians were amazing. Militarily they were near unstoppable. The fall is explained herein quite well but it still leaves a feeling of great disbelief. I found myself asking "I know you're telling me how, but how?" Good stuff if you like history.

I found the book easier to follow in the first half or so. I got more confused at the end but that could have been simply because the history itself became more confusing. I particularly got lost with distinguishing Prussia/Germany/the Reich. But then again, so did many people then. It's a solid (long) history of Prussia. My one criticism is how Clark skirted WWI. I would have liked more detail.