The three emperors
Subtitle: three cousins, three empires and the road to World War One
By: Miranda Carter
Publisher: Fig Tree
Published: 2009
Place of publication: London; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 584
ISBN-13: 9780670915569
Subjects: Family; Biography; Kings and rulers; History; World War, 1914-1918; Causes; Families; War; Weltkrieg
Description: Uses the cousins' correspondence and a host of historical sources to tell the tragicomic story of a tiny, glittering, solipsistic world that was often preposterously out of kilter with its times, struggling to stay in command of politics and world events as history overtook it.
Notes: Maps on endpapers.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 557-569) and index.
Table of contents: title: pt. I. Three Childhoods, Three Countries; title: 1. Wilhelm: an experiment in perfection (1859); title: 2. George: coming second (1865); title: 3. Nicholas: a diamond-studded ivory tower (1868); title: pt. II. Family Ties, Imperial Contests; title: 4. Wilhelm emperor (1888-90); title: 5. Young men in love (1891-4); title: 6. Wilhelm Anglophile (1891-5); title: 7. Perfidious Muscovy (1895-7); title: 8. Behind the wall (1893-1904); title: 9. Imperial imperatives (1898-1901); title: pt. III. A Bright New Century; title: 10. fourth emperor (1901-4); title: 11. Unintended consequences (1904-5); title: 12. Continental shifts (1906-8); title: 13. A Balkan crisis (1908-9); title: 14. Edward's mantle (1910-11); title: 15. Celebrations and warnings (1911-14); title: 16. July 1914; title: pt. IV. Armageddon; title: 17. A war (1914-18).