This concluding volume of a three-volume reassessment of the last five centuries of German history develops the theme of power into what Gordon A. Craig calls a "masterly account of the dramatic, tragic and often shameful history of Germany in the most recent age" (New York Times Book Review). It deals with the period of nationalism and imperialism, from the abortive attempt of popular forces to found a liberal national state and Bismarck's German unification through the Prussian military monarchy to the expansionist programs of the age of William II and Hitler's world conquest.