FREDERICK THE GREAT

The unobstrusive scholarship, the measured judgment associated with Dr. Gooch (Courts and Cabinets) again in evidence in these studies of Frederick the Great, which illuminate certain aspects of the man, the writer, the ruler. There are fifteen papers in this volume, ranging from his political role as the ""superman who set Prussia on the blood-stained road which led to the brief and perilous hegemony of continental Europe"", to his personal life, in the many relationships with his wife, his best loved sister Wilhelmina, his brother, his son, the idolatrous-disastrous friendship with Voltaire, and others. Here too is an estimate of the works of other German historians who have written- monumentally- of Frederick, of the contrasting criticism and praise he evoked, whether as ""arch-destroyer or master-builder"", but always with a fascination equal to the repulsion he stimulated... A contemporary study which is based on new material and which maintains a high standard of historical, critical interpretation.