Gold and Iron

Columbia historian Fritz Stern gathered thousands of previously unpublished documents, letters, and correspondences between the two foremost shapers of German unification, Otto von Bismarck and Gerson von Bleichrder. Most readers will be familiar with the former figure: Bismarck, new Germany's first leader and molder of political realities in nineteenth-century Europe. However, fewer will recognize the name of the latter. Gerson von Bleichrder, Jewish banker and unofficial confidant of Bismarck, remains neglected from German historiography. Stern seeks to correct this glaring omission by weaving the biographies of these two influential men into a comprehensive history of German unification. The result is a six hundred-plus page tome called Gold and Iron: Bismark, Bleichrder, and the Building of the German Empire. Well-written, well-organized, and thoroughly researched, Gold and Iron examines the personal and public lives of these two men and illustrates how they shaped German social, political, and economic policies....
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