Originally published in 1910 as a portion of the author’s larger “Masters of Achievement,” this Kindle edition, equivalent in length to a physical book of approximately 20 pages, describes the life and career of Prussian minister and German statesman Otto von Bismarck—the driving force behind the unification of Germany.
Includes Supplemental Material:
• A Brief Summary of the Life of Bismarck
• About the Franco-German War
Sample passage:
Bismarck also inaugurated the career of Germany as a colonizing power, a new departure which brought him into sharp but temporary conflict with the English of Gladstone. For the rest, his foreign policy mainly aimed at isolating France and rendering her incapable of forming anti-German alliances. On the other hand, he gradually combined the central powers of Europe into a peace-league—known as the triple alliance—whose purpose was to counteract the aggressiveness of Russia and France, separately or combined, on the Danube or the Rhine. The nucleus of this peace league was formed in 1879 by the Austro-German treaty of alliance—published February 1888—which Italy formally called the “peace-maker,” and the “peace-keeper” of Europe, a character Bismarck first publicly acquired when, as “honest broker” between Austria and Russia, he presided over the Berlin congress in 1878. The phrase, “man of blood and iron,” is based on “the iron chancellor’s” own use of the words in a speech in 1862.
About the author:
Henry Woldmar Ruoff (1865-1935) was an author whose other works include “The Century Book of Facts,” “The Capitals of the World,” and “Leaders of Men.”
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