About this item
From the author of the national bestseller The Sleepwalkers, a book about how the exercise of power is shaped by different concepts of timeThis groundbreaking book presents new perspectives on how the exercise of power is shaped by different notions of time. Acclaimed historian Christopher Clark draws on four key figures from German history"Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg-Prussia, Frederick the Great, Otto von Bismarck, and Adolf Hitler"to look at history through a temporal lens and ask how historical actors and their regimes embody unique conceptions of time.Inspired by the insights of Reinhart Koselleck and Franois Hartog, two pioneers of the temporal turn in historiography, Clark shows how Friedrich Wilhelm rejected the notion of continuity with the past, believing instead that a sovereign must liberate the state from the entanglements of tradition to choose freely among different possible futures.
About the Author
Christopher Clark is a professor of modern European history and a fellow of St. Catharine's College at the University of Cambridge, UK. He is the author of Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947, among other books.
