"My Four Years in Germany", by James W. Gerard, late Ambassador to the German Imperial Court, illustrated with several photographs, drawings, and facsimiles of related documents, personal invitations letters and various legal documents, published by George Doran, New York, 1917.

Hard boards, original publisher’s cloth, gold lettering on spine and front board [some wear, bumped spine ends]; 5.1/2" x 8.1/2"; illustrated endpapers, vintage ex-libris of Curtis A. Goodwin on the back of front endpaper; 448 pages including facsimiles of German documents, a little soiling, very good condition.

Chapters:
My First Year in Germany; Political and Geographical; Diplomatic Work of First Winter in Berlin; Militarism in Germany and the Zabern Affair; Psychology and Causes Which Prepared the Nation for War; At Kiel Just Before the War; The System; The Days Before the War; The Americans at the Outbreak of Hostilities; Prisoners of War; First Days of the War: Political and Diplomatic; Diplomatic Negotiations; Mainly Commercial; Work for the Germans; War Charities; Hate; Diplomatic Negotiations; Liberals and Reasonable Men; The German People in War; and Last.

Gerard was the American ambassador to Germany from 1913 until 1917, when diplomatic relations between the United States and Germany were severed. He of course interacted with the highest officials of the German government, so he has some insights into their thought processes as they moved towards what became the First World War and then how they acted during the time that the United States was officially neutral.

His insights into the structure of the German nation at that time are important, it was an union of states with their own royal classes united under the Kaiser. With the exception of foreign affairs, each of the leaders of the individual states had a great deal of autonomy.

Once the war started, it was the responsibility of the American Embassy to oversee the lives of the American citizens still in Germany. Additional responsibilities were to provide what assistance they could to the nationals of powers fighting Germany as well as oversee the treatment of prisoners held by Germany. It was a difficult task, there was a great deal of popular opinion in Germany that the United States was tilting towards the side of the Allies in the war.

This book provides some significant insights into Germany in the year before the war as well as the first three years of World War I. Some of the Germans were hostile, yet there were many in the leadership that did what they could to maintain a civil relationship between Gerard and Germany. Despite their denial, they knew that American entry into the war would lead to a German defeat.[from a review]

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