Breakneck and lurid, subtle and momentous, the story of the German empire is the sort of subject that could overwhelm a seasoned television don with 1,200 pages to play with, let alone a debut writer with 239.

There’s nothing particularly new in this assessment. The most impressive feature of this book is not its thesis but its brevity. Until now, I didn’t realize that it was possible to write a short book about Germany. Succinctness is an impressive and sadly undervalued quality in an author. A strict word count is a cruel tyrant; difficult decisions about what goes in have to be made and creativity inevitably curtailed. Hoyer nevertheless manages to pepper her trim narrative with some lovely frills. The mark of a really good short book is its ability to inspire curiosity. Blood and Iron achieves just that..

The themes of political fragility, social cleavages and pervasive militarism give an impressive depth and coherence to Hoyer’s tightly written narrative.

Hoyer takes the tale by the scruff of the neck and gives it a good shake for the less demanding general reader.

While failing to relate the full complexity of that war’s outbreak as other historians now understand it, the author astutely portrays how, by the early 20th century, budding German democracy was sidelined in favor of 'a silent dictatorship of the military.' But this superb book isn’t simply about government and war.

... accessible if abbreviated.