Kaiser Wilhelm II, Queen Victoria's eldest grandchild, took over the running of the powerful German Reich from Bismarck and within a couple of decades had led it into world war and collapse. How did the Kaiser come to have so much power? Why was there no one to help him steer a less disastrous course? This book analyses these crucial questions with the help of a wealth of new archival sources. The book begins with a character-sketch of the Kaiser which provides new and alarming insights into his personality. It then looks, crucially, at the Kaiser's friends and favourites, the neo-absolutist culture of the court and of Berlin court society, and at the nature of his relationship with the court on the one hand and with the administrative 'pyramid' in Prussia and the Reich on the other. The book makes clear that these bureaucrats and diplomats had neither the means nor the will to oppose the overwhelming determination of the Kaiser and his close friends and advisers in directing the policies of the most dynamic and volatile state in Europe. The dangerous consequences of this situation led to the brink of world war as early as December 1912. A final chapter reveals for the first time the appalling extent and nature of the exiled Kaiser's anti-semitism.

約翰·洛爾，德國曆史研究專傢，1938年齣生在倫敦，父親是德國人，母親是英國人。英國蘇塞剋斯大學教授，兼任德國漢堡大學、弗萊堡大學教授，慕尼黑曆史學院研究員，還是美國華盛頓伍德羅·威爾遜國際學者中心特約會員，美國北卡羅來納國立人文科學中心會員。 代錶性著作有《沒有俾斯麥的德國》(1967)、《從俾斯麥到希特勒》(1970)、《皇帝威廉二世——新詮釋》(1982)、《皇帝、宮廷和國傢》(1989)、《威廉二世傳》等，其中《威廉二世傳》2002年榮獲吉辛奬。 《皇帝和他的宮廷》是約翰·洛爾教授的成名作，在英語世界發行五版，1994年榮獲著名的沃爾夫森曆史奬。