Otto von Bismarck was in his lifetime Europe's most prominent statesman. From 1862 to 1890 he was minister-president of Prussia; from 1867 to 1871, chancellor of the North German Confederation; and from 1871 to 1890, chancellor of the German Reich. As first minister of the king of Prussia and German kaiser he was in charge of both domestic and foreign affairs, but his fame rests chiefly on his achievements in the latter field. At the cost of three brief wars--against Denmark in 1864, Austria in 1866, and France in 1870-1871--he unified Germany (excluding Austria, which before 1866 had been a part of Germany geographically, politically, and psychologically) under the leadership of an expanded Prussia. Afterward he strove successfully for nearly two decades to preserve peace in Europe to give Germany time to consolidate and fortify its new union. In domestic affairs he had less success. His attacks on political Catholicism and the socialist movement were failures...