Summarize the very complex history of Germany in less than 500 pages is a very difficult task, due to the highly fragmented nature of the whole policy in Germany until the nineteenth century. For his part, Bogdan spends two-thirds of his work in the period before the completion of the unification of the country in 1871. It focuses so extensively on the history of the Holy Roman Empire, his dynastic rivalries and quarrels Religious sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The rise of Prussia and the Hohenzollern, and the advent of the Second Reich in 1871 are described, as are the two world wars (the chapter of the National Socialist Germany before 1939 is particularly interesting) and division and reunification in the context of the predominant role of Germany within the European Union.
Bogdan provides an overview very readable history of an often paradoxical: that of a country divided for so long and now often regret his union; or that of an aggressive nationalism if there is a century but which has become outdated over the European.