19 APRIL 1919, Page 22

The German Empire, 1867-1914. By W. H. Dawson. Vol. L

(Allen and Unwin, and Jarrold. 16s. net.)—Mr. Dawson begins his spirited history of modern Germany with the fall of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, and does not reach his nominal starting-point till he is half-way through his first volume, which ends in 1884. It is thus essentially a study of Bismarck's career, critical but distinctly sympathetic. We shall await Mr. Dawson's second volume with interest, as he knows Germany well, and expresses his personal opinions with less reserve than Sir Augustus Ward, whose scholarly and dispassionate work on modem Germany we have recently noticed.