This volume analyzes the immediate civilian and military entourage of the last German Kaiser. Its purpose is to lay bare the internal structures which combined to produce the peculiar, and ultimately fatal, decisions taken by Germany's leaders from 1888 to 1918. The declining position of the Prussian nobility and its efforts to save itself, the increasing predominance in high government of the Prussian officer corps and its rigid ethos, the inelasticity of royal bureaucracy, as well as the character of the semi-autocratic Emperor: these cultural and social structures formed an interlocking whole which determined the quality of political leadership and decision making. Isabel Hull's scholarly and carefully argued study dissects the upper level of leadership to discover the reasons behind its self-destructive response to the crisis of modern Germany. It will interest political and social historians, political scientists and sociologists and make fascinating reading for anyone with an interest in the problems of modern Germany and its influence on the destiny of Europe.