...an astutely conceived and solidly grounded contribution to the historiography of German political culture in the earl twentieth century.
Geoff Eley The English Historical Review
The author deserves credit for filling an important empirical gap with a competent, well-researched and well-written monograph.
Moritz Follmer, Central European History
well-researched, comprehensive and highly readable
Lynn M. Kutch, Lehigh University
Gerwarth's book makes an outstanding contribution to our understanding of modern Germany's political culture.
Heinrich August Winkler
Robert Gerwarth's study on Otto von Bismarck and the role of the Bismarck myth in the rise of Hitler sets new standards for the historiography of Weimar Germany (and) improves our understanding of the fatal turn which German history took in 1933.
Hans-Ulrich Wehler, Weltwoche
The history of Weimar Germany's failure has never been told more accurately, convincingly, and vividly than in Robert Gerwarth's Bismarck Myth.
Johannes Willms, Deutschland Radio
Robert Gerwarth deals with an explosive chapter of historical politics his impressively presented [book is] ... an extremely worthwhile academic investigation.
Eberhard Kolb, Bulletin of the German Historical Institute
Robert Gerwarth's intelligent book convincingly uncovers Bismarcks importance as the hero of the right ... after 1918.
Der Tagesspiegel
A volume packed with information... The importance of the Bismarck myth... in the political discourse and controversies of the Weimar Republic becomes very clear.
Archiv für Sozialgeschichte
[The Bismarck Myth] enriches the scholarship on the Weimar Republic ... and offers a key explanation for Hitler's success and the root causes of the German desire for a charismatic leader.
HNet
Robert Gerwarth, has performed a real service by showing with a telling eye for colourful details, how Bismarck or rather the myth of Bismarck has been used by different factions in Germany's difficult history... [a] well researched and well written... book.
Contemporary Review
an astutely conceived and solidly grounded contribution to the historiography of German political culture in the eearly twentieth century.
Geoff Eley, English Historical Review