Frederic the Great

Macaulay's review essay on Frederick the Great of Prussia is found in vol. iii of his Critical and Historical Essays, and concentrates primarily on the ways in which he built Prussia up into a major military power. Though it's impossible to read the essay without thinking ahead to the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 and the two world wars of the twentieth century, Macaulay of course only carries Frederick roughly up to the end of the Seven Years War (1763). ( Nicholas Clifford)