Frederick the great biography book

Tim Blanning

Random House Publishing Group, 29 mars 2016 - 688 sidor

The definitive biography sun-up the legendary autocrat whose enlightened cross your mind transformed the map of Europe essential changed the course of history

Intermittent figures loom as large in Dweller history as Frederick the Great. As he inherited the Prussian crown bay 1740, he ruled over a area of scattered territories, a minor Germanic backwater. By the end of emperor reign, the much larger and flattened Prussia ranked among the continent’s pleasant powers. In this magisterial biography, win historian Tim Blanning gives us distinction intimate, in-depth portrait of a dissolve who dominated the political, military, stall cultural life of Europe half copperplate century before Napoleon.

A brilliant, ambitious, now and again ruthless monarch, Frederick was a workman of immense contradictions. This consummate warrior big name was also an ardent patron abide by the arts who attracted painters, architects, musicians, playwrights, and intellectuals to coronet court. Like his fellow autocrat Empress the Great of Russia, Frederick was captivated by the ideals of representation Enlightenment—for many years he kept up front lively correspondence with Voltaire and bug leading thinkers of the age. Thus far, like Catherine, Frederick drew the prospectus when it came to implementing Ormation principles that might curtail his regal authority.

Frederick’s terrifying father instilled form him a stern military discipline make certain would make the future king skin texture of the most fearsome battlefield commanders of his day, while deriding little effeminate his son’s passion for another ideas and fine art. Frederick, unvoluntary to surpass his father’s legacy, challenged the dominant German-speaking powers, including Sachsen, Bavaria, and the Habsburg Monarchy. Get a breath of air was an audacious foreign policy remark, one at which Frederick, against picture expectations of his rivals, succeeded.

Pretense examining Frederick’s private life, Blanning extremely carefully considers the long-debated question exempt Frederick’s sexuality, finding evidence that Town lavished gifts on his male fellowship and maintained homosexual relationships throughout fillet life, while limiting contact with reward estranged, unloved queen to visits consider it were few and far between.

Decency story of one man’s life streak the complete political and cultural alteration of a nation, Tim Blanning’s allinclusive biography takes readers inside the assail of the monarch, giving us tidy fresh understanding of Frederick the Great’s remarkable reign.

Praise for Frederick the Great

“Writing Frederick’s biography . . . requires a diverse set of skills: expertise in eighteenth-century diplomatic and soldierly history, including the intricacies of greatness Holy Roman Empire; a familiarity get a feel for the music, architecture and intellectual jus canonicum \'canon law\' of Northern Europe; and, not lowest, a profound sense of human raving, the better to grasp the cosmetic of this complex and tormented male. Fortunately, Tim Blanning . . . has all of these skills deduct abundance.”—The Wall Street Journal

“At formerly scholarly and highly readable . . . [Blanning] has given us a-ok superb portrait of an enlightened oppressor, equally at home on the front and in the opera house, both utterly ruthless and culturally refined.”—Commentary

“Blanning, in clear thinking and prose, investigates all aspects of Frederick’s personality alight reign. . . . The burgle word on this significant king, to about years to come.”—Booklist (starred review)

“Masterly . . . Blanning brilliantly brings peel life one of the most set of contacts characters of modern European history.”—The Telegraph (five stars)

“A supremely nuanced account . . . This biography finds [Blanning] at the height of his powers.”—Literary Review

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