The Three Emperors: Three Cousins, Three Empires and the Road to World War One [Hardcover]

Miranda Carter (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 640 pages
• Publisher: Fig Tree / Penguin (2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670915564
• ISBN-13: 978-0670915569
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (64 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,051,659 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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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.