Seconded -- read this earlier this year, and thoroughly enjoyed it. It also rather radically altered my perception of the "usual" German historical narrative ab

Seconded -- read this earlier this year, and thoroughly enjoyed it. It also rather radically altered my perception of the "usual" German historical narrative about Prussian militarism etc. Winder's a very humane writer, in addition to a hilarious one. His two follow-ups, Danubia and Lotharingia (the latter of which just got a write-up in the New York Review of Books) are on my to-read list for the new year.