What are some good texts that describe Imperial Germany especially during the Second Reich.

by ubertyr

Anything including daily life of denizens and the ruling class, government structure, military strategy, foreign policy, and economics interest me. I am looking for some good sources preferably print.

InsanelyJo

I would recommend:

Bismarck and the German Empire by Erich Eyck and

The Second Reich: Germany, 1871-1918 by William Simpson

They are both very informative and surprisingly interesting.

kwgoodlet

Roger Chickering is in large part an authority in the English-speaking world on Imperial Germany and the Great War. See Chickering's short Cambridge volume, Imperial Germany and the Great War, 1918-1918 (Cambridge University Press, 1998) and his much larger book on Freiburg's experience during this period, The Great War and Urban Life in Germany: Freiburg, 1914-1918 (2008). The latter study is extremely comprehensive and answers many questions about life in Germany during the war. He uses variegated and rich archival sources. I highly recommend it.