内容简介

　　“一战”结束之时，威廉二世成了大众仇恨的对象，他被视为战争爆发的罪魁祸首，应该为全世界遭受的不幸负责。协约国的媒体把他描绘为十恶不赦的暴君，很多人希望他被处以绞刑。在威廉二世统治了30年之久的德国，这位末代皇帝被称为“疯子”，带领他的臣民走向毁灭。21世纪伊始，当时的人们由这类评断而产生的对威廉的情绪和反应在很大程度上已经消失殆尽了，但对威廉二世的印象依然是负面多过正面。

　　威廉二世是20世纪欧洲历史上最重要——也是最有争议的——人物之一。受到传统叙述的影响，众多谈及威廉的史学评论都采用了嘲笑、谴责，甚至妖魔化的论调。本书追踪了德皇威廉的政治生涯，从他在霍亨索伦宫廷压抑的青少年时代，到他甫登帝位与俾斯麦等老臣争夺主导权的时期，到他踌躇满志、国家快速崛起的“威廉时代”，再到滑向失控深渊的世界大战和帝国崩溃，还有他晚年与纳粹的关系。作者通过对原始史料的梳理，试图还原真实的威廉二世，重点关注1888—1918年他在位期间是如何影响德国和欧洲其他国家的。

　　在克拉克看来，威廉二世是一位复杂而矛盾的人物：聪明有余，但判断力不足，行为反复无常；生性敏感而自负，常常因感到弱势和威胁而冲动行事。威廉二世的能力当然不能使他成为一位伟大君王，但他的这些特质，在一定程度上也反映了那个快速兴起的德国的状态。威廉二世也并未实现他理想中的大权独揽，他在位期间许多标志性的政策，其实并非由他所主导。本书并不打算为这位末代皇帝“辩解”，而是通过在具体情境中解读他的言行，在众声谴责和同情理解之间找回平衡，并展现在其统治时期德国复杂的内外环境和盘根错节的权力关系。

　　作者简介

　　克里斯托弗·克拉克（Christopher Clark），著名历史学家、澳大利亚人文学院院士、英国国家学术院院士、英国剑桥大学现代欧洲史教授。2007年，他获得英国历史学界的沃尔夫森历史奖；2010年，因其对德国历史研究的突出贡献，他被德国政府授予十字勋章；2015年，克拉克被授予爵士头衔；2022年，他因在英德历史领域做出的贡献获欧洲媒体查理曼奖。克拉克著有《梦游者：1914年，欧洲如何走向“一战”》《沉重的皇冠：威廉二世》《钢铁王国：普鲁士的兴衰，1600—1947》《时间与权力》《革命之春：为新世界而战，1848—1849》等多部备受推崇的欧洲史作品。

Content introduction

At the end of World War I, Wilhelm II became the object of popular hatred, seen as the culprit for the outbreak of the war and responsible for the world's suffering. The Allied press portrayed him as a heinous tyrant, and many wanted him hanged. In Germany, where Wilhelm II ruled for 30 years, the last emperor was known as the "madman" who led his subjects to ruin. By the beginning of the 21st century, the emotions and reactions that were generated by such assessments had largely disappeared, but the impression of Wilhelm II remained more negative than positive.

Wilhelm II is one of the most important - and controversial - figures in 20th-century European history. Influenced by the traditional narrative, many historical commentaries on William have adopted a tone of derision, condemnation, and even demonization. The book traces Kaiser Wilhelm's political career from his repressive teenage years at the Hohenzollern court, through his early ascent to the throne and his struggle for dominance with older courteers such as Bismarck, through his ambitious "Wilhelm era" of rapid national rise, through world wars and imperial collapse that spiralled out of control, and through his relationship with the Nazis in his later years. The author tries to reconstruct the real Wilhelm II by combing through the original historical records, focusing on how his reign from 1888 to 1918 affected Germany and the rest of Europe.

In Clark's view, Wilhelm II was a complex and contradictory figure: intelligent but ill-judged and capricious; Sensitive and conceited by nature, she often acts impulsively because she feels vulnerable and threatened. Wilhelm II's abilities certainly did not make him a great king, but they also reflected, to some extent, the state of a rapidly rising Germany. Wilhelm II did not achieve his ideal of power, and many of the signature policies of his reign were not actually directed by him. This book does not attempt to "justify" the last emperor, but to find a balance between condemnation and sympathetic understanding by interpreting his words and actions in context, and to show the complex internal and external circumstances and intertwined power relations of Germany during his reign.

About the author

Christopher Clark is a distinguished historian, Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, Fellow of the British National Academy, and Professor of Modern European History at the University of Cambridge. In 2007, he received the Wolfson Prize for History in British History. In 2010, he was awarded the Cross of the Order of Merit by the German government for his contributions to the study of German history. Clarke received a knighthood in 2015; In 2022, he won the European Media Charlemagne Prize for his contributions to the field of British and German history. Clark is the author of Sleepwalkers: 1914, How Europe led to World War I, The Heavy Crown: Wilhelm II, The Kingdom of Steel: The Rise and Fall of Prussia, 1600-1947, Time and Power, and Revolutionary Spring: The Battle for the New World, 1848-49, among other highly regarded works of European history.