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The power of the Prussian state, with its outward splendour and military pageantry, and with the prestige it began to enjoy within the system of European states, gradually came to outweigh older traditions of cultural identity. The imperial period saw the formation of all the principal institutional structures which have continued to govern life in Germany, and all the foundations of present-day cultural life. Yet the German Empire remained a state distorted by authoritarianism. All areas of life were affected, politics, the economy, the arts, education and foreign policy, and a widening gulf opened between the political system and society, putting at risk the very governability of the Empire. It was in these conditions that Germany went to war in 1914, a conflict which ended with the collapse of the Hohenzollern monarchy and revolution. This book offers a cogent analysis of the main developments and issues in a formative and portentous period of Germany's history.