Blood and Iron: Katja Hoyer in Conversation with Roger Moorhouse - Dublin Festival of History 2021

Before 1871, Germany was not a nation but an idea. Its founder, Otto von Bismarck, had a formidable task at hand. How would he bring thirty-nine individual states under the yoke of a single Kaiser, convincing proud Prussians, Bavarians and Rhinelanders to become Germans? Once united, could the young European nation wield enough power to rival the empires of Britain and France – all without destroying itself in the process? In a unique study of five decades that changed the course of modern history, Katja Hoyer tells the story of the German Empire from its violent beginnings to its calamitous defeat in the First World War. It is a dramatic tale of national self-discovery, social upheaval and realpolitik that ended, as it started, in blood and iron. Katja Hoyer is a German-British historian specializing in modern German history. She was born in East Germany and is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society in London . Roger Moorhouse began his writing career working for Professor Norman Davies and has since written several highly successful books on aspects of the Third Reich. The Dublin Festival of History is brought to you by Dublin City Council, and organised by Dublin City Libraries, in partnership with Dublin City Council Culture Company.