The original title of this book is "The Three Emperors: Three Cousins, Three Empires and the Road to World War One". I picked this up because I love history and have a special interest in the Long Nineteenth Century and the First and Second World Wars. I've been very interested in the Romanovs for a few years now and even though - or maybe precisely because of it - this book sheds light on the English king, the German emperor and the Russian czar, this feels like the most completely portrayal of Nicholas II I've read so far.

The book begins with the childhoods of the three protagonists and further elaborates on how they all interacted, how they reigned, how they felt about each other. It describes how much they were shaped by their upbringing and how that affected their decisions, or lack thereof, and how that would eventually change the course of history.

This is non fiction, but especially in the beginning it almost reads as a novel. As it goes on, however, it becomes more complicated. The monarchies are very entwined, which makes it difficult enough. It doesn't help that the author uses the birth names, royal names and pet names of people seemingly at random. This is further complicated by the fact that the same names tend to be used over and over. The author could have done a better job of specifying who's she's talking about. I've studied history (and read A Song of Ice and Fire) and I don't usually have trouble remembering names or keeping people apart. But honestly, if it's been 200 pages since you've mentioned her and so many people pass in between, I don't remember who Minny was again. I'm not sure if the translation is to blame, but the family tree at the beginning wasn't nearly sufficient or elaborate enough.

This book is presented as an explanation for how World War One could happen. It was actually much more than that - we really get a detailed look at the private lives of the monarchs. That was interesting enough, but because of the structure gradually unravelling, it became quite messy.

The author did a really good job of portraying these people completely, though. You see their strengths and their flaws - and those flaws in turn are put in a context where we can understand why someone would turn out to be that way. This causes Carter to offer explanations I've never read anywhere else. I really appreciated the psychological insights as well as the insight into the political inner workings.

Carter clearly knows a lot on the subject and it must have been monstrous to put this together in a narrative. But what a great one it is.

I have my criticism, but those might fade on a re-read, and overall I would really recommend this to any history fan.

Interesting book about the crowned heads of England, Russia and Germany (all cousins) and the actions that led to World War I.

Took this book out of the library after finishing THE BERLIN - BAGHDAD EXPRESS: THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE AND GERMANY'S BID FOR WORLD POWER 1898 - 1918 by Sean McMeekin, which was so good I immediately wanted to read more about WWI. I hope this book is good too!

ETA: And it was. I really enjoyed it and learned a lot.

An extremely thorough, substantial look at the events leading to WWI and the parts the three emperors played in it. This, for me, was a very tedious scavenge through loads and loads of political minutiae for interesting relevant parts here and there. Admittedly I was more interested in the people themselves and their relationships with one another and not so much every single last detail of the hows and whys of the causes of WWI.
My one big nitpick is her writing style. She loves to construct long, complicated sentences that have clauses within clauses. By the time you exit the parenthetical you’re having to start back at the beginning again to remember what point she started out making. *eyeroll* You’d think she was being paid per comma and dash. So for me that just made the reading that much more of a slog.
Overall it was enlightening and does a good job of filling in other perspectives after having read other books on these figures and events. 3.5 stars.

I enjoyed that the book provided a look at the way that all three of the cousins compared and contrasted in their reactions to the changes taking place throughout their reigns, but it was occasionally difficult for me to follow the thread of what was happening where as the book jumped from place to place. For me, the extreme amount of detail added to the difficulty, but others may appreciate it.

This was a really interesting study on the three major monarchs of the First World War, but the writing left something to be desired. While the facts were interesting and the stories were intriguing, the prose was a bit more difficult to parse. It wasn't a slog to get through but it didn't keep pulling me back. Nonetheless, it was quite interesting and a worthy addition to my WWI shelf.

An extremely thorough, substantial look at the events leading to WWI and the parts the three emperors played in it. This, for me, was a very tedious scavenge through loads and loads of political minutiae for interesting relevant parts here and there. Admittedly I was more interested in the people themselves and their relationships with one another and not so much every single last detail of the hows and whys of the causes of WWI.
My one big nitpick is her writing style. She loves to construct long, complicated sentences that have clauses within clauses. By the time you exit the parenthetical you’re having to start back at the beginning again to remember what point she started out making. *eyeroll* You’d think she was being paid per comma and dash. So for me that just made the reading that much more of a slog.
Overall it was enlightening and does a good job of filling in other perspectives after having read other books on these figures and events. 3.5 stars.

This is not the book that I'd thought it was when I bought it. I'd read very interesting excerpts from a book on this subject back in high school. I enjoyed the original enough that I'd always wanted to read the entire thing. I realized the mix up about a third of the way through, because what I was after was the relationship of the three cousins as set out by personal letters between them- something along the lines of "Dear Nikki, Love Willie." I'm still looking for the original source of what I was reading.

Still, this book is interesting in a historical sense if you are interested in the period. There is a lot of information, but I found it quite confusing due to the mixing of personal and historic titles/names used to reference each of the cousins and relations. I often got lost as to who was doing what, and that quickly led to a lack of interest. I couldn't wait to get through with it, and you can see it took a long time at that.

This is a rather dry read, but good for informational value. It just depends on your reason for wanting to read it, as to whether or not it is worth it.

I would highly recommend - and I listened to it as an audiobook, which was even better!

Probably the smartest book I read in 2010. Not that I think it's really possible for me to comprehend why WW! started, but this helped me understand more of the personalities involved with the 40 years prior to the conflict.