Chancellor Otto Bismarck's "greatness" lay in what he created, the German Reich of 1871. Th is Reich was the product of his genius, and in it his genius took complete shape. In less than a decade German chaos was brought to an end and in its place a homogeneous state began to arise. Th e structure of this state left no room for opposing political forces, but rather made ready a roof under which these forces might rally, support each other, and gain strength. Bismarck and the Creation of the Second Reich begins as a biography but continues as a description of his political life and the ideas...