First published 2019
Christopher Clark, author of the bestselling The Sleepwalkers, explores how different concepts of time shaped political power in German history. He focuses on four pivotal leaders: Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg-Prussia, Frederick the Great, Otto von Bismarck, and Adolf Hitler. Drawing on the work of historians Reinhart Koselleck and François Hartog, Clark reveals how each ruler embodied a distinct relationship with time. Friedrich Wilhelm rejected continuity with the past, seeking to free the state from tradition. Frederick the Great embraced a neoclassical vision where sovereign and state existed beyond time. Bismarck aimed to preserve the state's permanence against historical change. Hitler sought to escape history entirely through racial archetypes and prophetic visions of the future. The book spans from the Thirty Years' War to the Third Reich's collapse, showing how political authority connects to the temporal worldviews of those who exercise it.
Genres: history, 20th-century, political-science, non-fiction, 19th-century, academic
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: historical-figures
Setting: Germany, Prussia
Period: Thirty Years' War, Third Reich
312 pages · Hardcover · Princeton University Press