Covering the period from 1815 to the mid-1970s, this history analyzes the many aspects of political and cultural life that underlay German nationalism. The author examines its roots in the Zollverein (Friedrich List’s customs union) and its manifestation in works like the tales of The Brothers Grimm. He also shows how the exaggerated, aggressive form of nationalism encouraged by Bismarck contributed to the outbreak of both world wars…culminating horribly in the rise of Hitler and subsiding only when post-war Germany was able to break the bonds of the past.