Neil MacGregor's unique and bestselling view into Germany's history and collective imagination, now available as a compact hardcover. For the past 140 years, Germany has been the central power in continental Europe. Twenty-five years ago a new German state came into being. How much do we really understand this new Germany, and how do its people now understand themselves? Neil MacGregor argues that uniquely for any European country, no coherent, over-arching narrative of Germany's history can be constructed, for in Germany both geography and history have always been unstable. Beginning with the fifteenth-century invention of modern printing by Gutenberg, MacGregor chooses objects and ideas, people and places which show us something of this collective imagination. There has never been a book about Germany quite like it. * Germany is an enduring point of interest for British audiences, but we hear about little beyond the War and the Wall. This book gives a dramatically different picture of the country's rich, complex and always significant history. * "Neil MacGregor is our greatest cultural polymath... Anyone who wants to understand Germany should read this." -- Antony Beevor, Observer * "From sausages and porcelain to the glory days of Bauhaus, MacGregor has produced a dazzling history that goes far beyond the stereotypes of Nazis, forests and leather shorts. The illustrations alone -- the glittering interior of Aachen Cathedral, the engravings of Albrecht Dürer -- make you want to jump on the first flight to Berlin." --Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times