A Mighty Fortress: A New History of the German People Paperback – Illustrated, January 18, 2005

German history is, I think, hard to grasp for many, primarily since for much of it’s history the German countries, or the German people, have lacked the same political cohesiveness present in other European domains, such as England, France and Spain. This book not only explains how and why Germany, the distinct cultural and political entity, came into being, but also how that journey shaped the culture and character of the German people.Whether you’re a German-American curious about the saga of your ancestors, a student of history interested in the story of one of the worlds more prominent countries or simply a fan of Deutsch Kultur, this book is an interesting and informative read.

I found this history of Germany to be very interesting in so many ways. Ozment traces the roots of Germany back to earliest times, up through Charlemagne and the Holy Roman Empire, through the Reformation and up to the Third Reich. But this is not about the Nazis, although they are briefly mentioned, but more the Germanic people and their secular and religious rulers over the Millenia.Especially interesting to me was the inheritance laws of the Germanic nations versus the Franks (French) allowing great concentration of Estates in French up the chain of feudal rule to the King himself, while the plethora of Germanic States remained small and relatively powerless. Only Bismark solved this problem but it left the modern German post 1870 perhaps with a sense of inferiority vis-a-vis French relations.But I digress, if you have any interest at all in understanding how modern Europe came to be, or Germany in particular, then I highly recommend it to you.

This is a good, quick history on the German people and area that moves nicely. There are a few too many typos, but still worth reading.

I have read very many books about German history, especially just prior to World War I to just after World War II, trying to understand just how it all could have happened, but those books never revealed the complexity of the German society prior to those events that apparently played a critical role in the evolution of those events, but "A Mighty fortress" has shed a lot of light on the factors which contributed to the events which took place. For that I am most appreciative.

I chose this book because the book jacket reviews hail Steven Ozment as “a splendid readable scholar”, “readable and absorbing”, “ideal for the general reader”.Perhaps these statements should be qualified by general readers. This book certainly does not garner a high readability score from this general reader. The acknowledgement is the exception.This author certainly could write for the general reader but he didn’t, so I assume that was not his goal and that should not be the stated in the review. Even at Harvard students who are not history majors would struggle through.I cannot comprehend the context. Nearly every sentence contains more than one word that I don’t know, usually the name of a person, a place, a historic or social movement. This requires far too much cross referencing, however doable. Yet, the sentence structure generally adds to my confusion. It is a refreshing break to come to a page with high readability whereby I rejoice in the momentary belief that my understanding seems to be the author’s intended takeaway.I have no doubt that Steven Ozment knows everything I would like to know about the history of Germany. Regrettably, he did not write for the general audience. He did not write as people speak. The intended meaning of sentence after sentence requires a decoder ring.I regret that I bought this book. I actually cannot even think of anyone to pass it along to. I know others who are interested in the subject matter who have a much broader foundation than I, but I don’t know anyone who would appreciate the puzzling intimations or intentions based upon the usage of sophisticated vocabulary. Generally, a broad knowledge of vocabulary helps the author to convey precise meaning but in this case I think the author assumes the reader has a strong foundation in German history. When that is not the case all is lost.

The in depth re-orientation introduction to a balanced and objective view of the actual historical facts, healthy open minded whole system view of 2000+ years of actual Germanic history instead of the so common narrow propagandistic stereo typical 20 years Nazi focussed rendition of German history

I have read a lot of religious history, but the section on what Martin Luther and the Catholic Church disagreed upon, what particularly insightful.

like you read reviews, history nerd. Get the book you need something for the trip to the DMV...