Winner of the Wolfson History Prize Christopher Clark's Iron Kingdom The Rise & Downfall of Prussia 1600-1947 is a compelling account of a country that played a pivotal role in Europe's fortunes & fundamentally shaped our world Prussia began as a medieval backwater but transformed itself into a major European power & the force behind the creation of the German empire until it was finally abolished by the Allies after the Second World War With great flair & authority Christopher Clark describes Prussia's great battles dynastic marriages & astonishing reversals of fortune its brilliant & charismatic leaders from the Hohenzollerns of Brandenburg to Bismarck & Frederick the Great the military machine & the progressive enlightened values on which it was built ' Fascinating masterly littered with intriguing detail & wry observation' Richard Overy Daily Telegraph 'A terrific book the definitive history of this much-maligned state' Daily Telegraph Books of the Year ' You couldn't have the triumph & the tragedy of Prussia better told' Observer 'A magisterial history of Europe's only extinct power' Financial Times ' Exemplary an illuminating profoundly satisfying work of history' The New York Times Christopher Clark is a lecturer in Modern European History at St Catharine's College University of Cambridge He is also the author of Kaiser Wilhelm II A Life in Power