Michael Balfour sets out to explain the factors which have shaped Germany. A satisfactory understanding of the German situation, he feels, can only be gained by a full knowledge of German history from the Middle Ages. It is only this depth of historical insight which can lead the reader to a comprehension of modern Germany - why Germany precipitated - and lost - two major wars this century; the nature of the National Socialist regime; the recent unification of Germany - and the way forward. In examining the German social, political and economic character, Balfour traces the movement of power through the centuries. German history has been dominated by the failure of her medieval rulers to set up strong central governments such as England and France, and the author attibutes Germany's position as an industrial backwater in the early nineteenth century to this early failure of rule. When Germany did achieve unity in 1914 and 1940 she wasted these opportunities by her attempts to gain world power. Balfour then examines by contrast, the astonishing growth of wealth over the last half-century, in which Germany has emerged from its power vacuum' to dictate European interest rates. Balfour concludes with a discussion of the events surrounding unification and the acceptance of German power by the rest of the world in the 1990's.