I would like to know what mix of scholarly literature and biography can help me get a handle on the various schools of thought and most current historiography concerning Kaiser Wilhelm II (not just in terms of his role in WW1, but more generally). It's become clear to me that having a better handle on this scholarly debate is necessary to more fully understand a number of books that I've read recently.
In my search I found an older thread that recommended John Röhl's work, but only hinted at the conflict between his approach and that of scholars like Christopher Clark. Is it thus necessary to read Clark's 2000 biography alongside Röhl's? Do I need to find Fritz Fischer's older work too? Are there collections of documents, like letters or diplomatic orders, that it would be good for me to read (unfortunately I do not read German so I could only access things that are available in translation)?
I have a Ph.D. in a related field, so scholarly journals, "dry" texts with lots of footnotes, and things like that don't bother me at all. I read Italian and French in addition to English--not that I think that will matter much, but I guess there's a small chance that there's a valuable book or article written in one of those languages.
Thank you for your time.
Reading both Clark and Röhl in conjunction can be useful, albeit a time suck as the latter's main biography of Wilhelm II is quite dense and a door-stopper. Fischer's works can these days mostly be skipped; the general trend in Wlhelmine historiography is that while most historians have dispensed with the Fischer thesis of a grasp at Weltmacht, the evidence used by Fischer used to prove his argument have become somewhat orthodox in scholarship.
There are two books that are good introductions to the larger trends in historiography and the dueling interpretations. Matthew Jefferies's Contesting the German Empire, 1871-1918, part of Blackwell's Contesting the Past imprint, outlines some of the major strands of historiography while adding some trenchant criticism. Jefferies also edited the Ashgate Companion to Imperial Germany which has thematic chapters on various topics, including a good one by Katharine Anne Lerman on imperial governance. In addition to Röhl's biography, the anthology The Kaiser: New Research on Wilhelm II's Role in Imperial Germany is a festschrift written for Röhl and while the essays do largely support the British historian, they do outline some of the substantive criticisms Clark and others have made in the past.
GHIL also featured a good podcast featuring Röhl and several other historians of Germany debating the origins of the war as well as Wilhelm II's place in it.