George, Nicholas and Wilhelm: Three Royal Cousins and the Road to World War I [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Miranda Carter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 23, 2010

In the years before the First World War, the great European powers were ruled by three first cousins: King George V of Britain, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. Together, they presided over the last years of dynastic Europe and the outbreak of the most destructive war the world had ever seen, a war that set twentieth-century Europe on course to be the most violent continent in the history of the world.

Miranda Carter uses the cousins’ correspondence and a host of historical sources to tell the tragicomic story of a tiny, glittering, solipsistic world that was often preposterously out of kilter with its times, struggling to stay in command of politics and world events as history overtook it. George, Nicholas and Wilhelm is a brilliant and sometimes darkly hilarious portrait of these men—damaged, egotistical Wilhelm; quiet, stubborn Nicholas; and anxious, dutiful George—and their lives, foibles and obsessions, from tantrums to uniforms to stamp collecting. It is also alive with fresh, subtle portraits of other familiar figures: Queen Victoria—grandmother to two of them, grandmother-in-law to the third—whose conservatism and bullying obsession with family left a dangerous legacy; and Edward VII, the playboy “arch-vulgarian” who turned out to have a remarkable gift for international relations and the theatrics of mass politics. At the same time, Carter weaves through their stories a riveting account of the events that led to World War I, showing how the personal and the political interacted, sometimes to devastating effect.

For all three men the war would be a disaster that destroyed forever the illusion of their close family relationships, with any sense of peace and harmony shattered in a final coda of murder, betrayal and abdication.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* The slippery slope into horrific armed conflict is a tale often told about World War I, but this author’s take on the antecedents of the European war of 1914–18 is distinct. Carter views the shifting alliance entanglements of the Great Powers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and especially the growing animosity and rivalry between Britain and Germany, with particular focus on the attitudes and actions of three royal first cousins: Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany, Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, and King George V of Great Britain (who also reigned as emperor of India, hence the book’s title reference to three emperors). Rich in concrete detail, elegant in style, and wise, fresh, and knowledgeable in interpretation, the author’s account observes a profound anachronism at play: that these three monarchs, in what they didn’t realize were the waning days of the institution of monarchy, handled foreign diplomacy as if it were a family business. Despite the reality of growing fissures separating their countries, “each emperor continued to paper over the cracks with cousinly gestures, each increasingly irrelevant.” Europe plunged over the precipice of war in August 1914, revealing in stark terms the inability of royal familial ties to control and contain national disagreements; as the author has it, the fact that Wilhelm, Nicholas, and George were out of touch with actual politics could not have been more apparent. An irresistible narrative for history buffs. --Brad Hooper

Review

Praise for Miranda Carter's George, Nicholas, and Wilhelm:


“Miranda Carter has written an engrossing and important book. While keeping her focus on the three cousins and their extended families, she skillfully interweaves and summarizes all important elements of how the war came about…Carter has given us an original book, highly recommended.” ---The Dallas Morning News


"Masterfully crafted. . . Carter has presented one of the most cohesive explorations of the dying days of European royalty and the coming of political modernity. . . Carter has delivered another gem." --Bookpage

"Ms. Carter writes incisively about the overlapping events that led to the Great War and changed the world. . . George, Nicholas, and Wilhelm is an impressive book. Ms. Carter has clearly not bitten off more than she can chew for she -- as John Updike once wrote of Gunter Grass -- 'chews it enthusiastically before our eyes.'" --The New York Times 

"An irresistably entertaining and illuminating chronicle . . . Readers with fond memories of Robert Massie and Barbara Tuchman can expect similar pleasures in this witty, shrewd examination of the twilight of the great European monarchies." —Publishers Weekly

"A wonderfully fresh and beautifully choreographed work of history." —Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday
 
"A hauntingly tempting proposition for a book . . . The parallel, interrelated lives of Kaiser Wilhelm II, George V, and Nicholas II are . . . a prism though which to tell the march to the first World War, the creation of the modern industrial world and the follies of hereditary courts and the eccentricities of their royal trans-European cousinhood . . . An entertaining and accessible study of power and personality." —Simon Sebag Montefiore, Financial Times

"Carter draws masterful portraits of her subjects and tells the complicated story of Europe’s failing international relations well . . . A highly readable and well-documented account." —Margaret MacMillan, The Spectator

“I couldn’t put this book down. The whole thing really lives and breathes – and it’s very funny. That these three absurd men could ever have held the fate of Europe in their hands is a fact as hilarious as it is terrifying.” – Zadie Smith

"[An] enterprising history of imperial vicissitudes and royal reversals." --The New York Times Book Review

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 528 pages
• Publisher: Knopf (March 23, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400043638
• ISBN-13: 978-1400043637
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.5 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (64 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #120,591 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #99 in Books > History > Military > World War I

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

76 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fascinating Blend Of Personal And Political History, April 1, 2010

By 

John D. Cofield - See all my reviews
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This review is from: George, Nicholas and Wilhelm: Three Royal Cousins and the Road to World War I (Hardcover)

Miranda Carter has produced an excellent biography of three prominent men of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. King George V of Great Britain, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany were the rulers of three of the most powerful states in the world. George and Wilhelm were first cousins as grandsons of Queen Victoria, while Nicholas II was George's first cousin (their mothers were sisters), married to another of Victoria's grandchildren, and a more distant blood relation of Wilhelm's. Their tangled family trees meant the three men, who were all about the same age, grew up knowing but not necessarily liking each other, and their personal feelings affected their nations' political and foreign policies during their reigns.

The biographies of all three men have been written many times, but Carter's comparative approach allows for many new psychological and other insights to be made. There are many anecdotes, including many that I, though I have enjoyed reading about that time period for many years, had not previously come across. Some of the stories are hilarious, particularly those dealing with the Kaiser's madcap efforts to make and unmake alliances and wars. In the end Wilhelm seems to have been the most intelligent (but also most erratic) of the three, while Nicholas, although more perceptive than he's generally assumed to have been, was still far too passive and ignorant of his country's troubles. George was the most enigmatic to my mind, primarily because as a constitutional monarch he took care not to make his opinions (if he had any) well known.

While this book primarily deals with the three monarchs and their families, there is also a wealth of information about the many politicians and advisors who guided (or at least attempted to guide) their rulers safely through the minefields of European diplomacy. The finest sections deal with the outbreak and conduct of World War I, which led to the collapse of the German and Russian monarchies and the execution of Nicholas and his family.

I've read many biographies and histories dealing with these three monarchs over the years, but I found much that was new and interesting in Miranda Carter's new work. I believe it will become one of the standard references for the period. I certainly intend to reread and enjoy it many times.

38 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars No new insights, April 28, 2010

By 

SusieQ (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: George, Nicholas and Wilhelm: Three Royal Cousins and the Road to World War I (Hardcover)

What I did not like about this book was the often snarky; occasionally impatient, definitely non-professional-historian, attitude that this author takes to her three subjects and the times they lived in, throughout the book. It's an almost blog-ish style of authorship: the quick reveal about one and then it's onto the next. The research this author has done is apparent, but the superficial intonation she brings to her writing is very hard to take. This is a shame, because GEORGE, NICHOLAS AND WILHELM, I will grant, is more substantive than Catrine Clay's similar (but truly terrible) "King, Kaiser, Tsar"; has fewer errors than that book (although at least twice within the first pages, this author refers to one of her sources, Princess Marie Louise, as Princess "Mary" Louise. Sheesh...) and has better chapters about the beginning of the First World War. These qualities earn my stars.

But principally I felt this author was merely regurgitating everything she's read about the three rulers. There's no new information and it's certainly not very compellingly presented.

For better written, and more insightful views on these men and their times (and also their mothers, or the women they married), I would suggest reading these biographies instead (some of which are cited by Ms. Carter):

Hannah Pakula - An Uncommon Woman
John Van der Kiste - Kaiser William II
Greg King - The Last Empress
Greg King & Penny Wilson - The Fate of the Romanovs
Rosemary & Donald Crawford - Michael & Natasha (good chapters on the characters of Nicholas II, Alexandra; the parenting methods of Empress Marie & Tsar Alexander III)
Kenneth Rose - George V
Dennis Friedman - Darling Georgie (I don't agree with all of the conclusions of this author, a psychologist, about George V, but this is a very interesting book)
Georgiana Battiscombe - Queen Alexandra
James Pope-Hennessey - Queen Mary

I would also strongly recommend that the interested reader go to the letters between, or are about, William, Nicholas & Alexandra; George, et al., such as are collected in the books "A Lifelong Passion", ed. Sergei Mironenko; any one of the series of Roger Fulford's edited collection of letters between Queen Victoria and her eldest daughter, Princess Victoria (the Empress Frederick); "The Empress Frederick Writes to Sophie" (ed. Arthur Gould Lee), and "Advice to My Granddaughter", ed. by Richard Hough. "Darling Loosey" ed. Elizabeth Longford, also has some good letters about these people.

I would also recommend the book, "Purple Secret", by John Rohl, which has an intriguing chapter on the Empress Alexandra's health and its effects on her mental state (which in turn had an impact on Nicholas II's state of mind and his actions).

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Origins of First World War, April 1, 2010

By 

Eileen Pollock (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: George, Nicholas and Wilhelm: Three Royal Cousins and the Road to World War I (Hardcover)

I rather expected this heavy tome to be heavy going. I was pleasantly surprised to find it moved at a brisk pace, was skillfully written, and told a ripping good tale. The period covered - the events of the last decades of the 19th century and leading up to the first World War - has not been the focus of much literary attention in recent years. Miranda Carter, using a plethora of primary and secondary sources, brings this period to vivid life. The three royal personages of the title, George V, Tsar Nicholas, and Kaiser Wilhelm, prove remarkably interesting considering they were either ordinary or worse than ordinary. They ruled during the last years of European royalty, and only the English king managed to survive the Great War. I look forward to finding some of the historical sources listed in the comprehensive bibliography for further reading. This book is an excellent starting point on the origins of World War I and the characters of its royal protagonists.