Ocean State Libraries

Piet and soldier, misanthrope and philosopher, Frederick the Great was a contradictory, almost unfathomable man. His conquests made him one of the most formidable and feared leaders of his era. But, as a patron of artists and intellectuals, Frederick re-created Berlin as one of the continent's great cities, matching his state's reputation for military ferocity with one for cultural achievement. Though history remembers Frederick as a "Potsdam Fuhrer,"...

A biography of the eighteenth-century Prussian king whose firm government and military exploits earned him the title of "enlightened despot."

"Kaiser Wilhelm II (1859-1941) is on e of the most fascinating figures in European history, ruling Imperial Germany from his accession in 1888 to his enforced abdication in 1918 at the end of the First World War. In one slim volume, John Röhl offers readers a concise and accessible survey of his monumental three-volume biography of the Kaiser and his reign. The book sheds new light on Wilhelm's troubled youth, his involvement in social and political...

A portrait of the contradictory ruler who helped elevate Prussia to a first-rate power in the eighteenth century explores such topics as his military accomplishments, his long relationship with Voltaire, and his embrace of Enlightenment philosophies.