For the first time in Trade Paperback the massive, compelling book in which William Manchester brings to life Europe's richest, most powerful family, a 400-year dynasty that armed Germany in three major wars. Their cannon won the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. In 1871 they invented the first anti-aircraft gun to shoot down observation balloons. In WWI their mammoth weapons shelled Paris at a range of 81 miles. For 40 years they manufactured submarines, beginning with the U-1 that menaced Allied shipping. In 1940 their cannon actually shelled England from across the channel. The Krupps armed the forces of the Kaiser and financed Hitler's 'Terror Election' of 1933. Hitler honoured their loyalty by decreeing special tax exemptions that continued to bind a post-war West Germany. The Krupps even survived a Nuremberg conviction to become the dynamo behind the 'Common Market'.

威廉•曼徹斯特（William Manchester）（1922—2004），美國著名史學傢、作傢。在五十多年的寫作生涯中,一共寫瞭18本書，其中有記述歐洲中世紀和美國20世紀中期的通俗曆史作品，傳記作品包括H.L.門肯、道格拉斯•麥剋阿瑟將軍、洛剋菲勒傢族等傳記，還有４本小說以及一本二戰迴憶錄。代錶作有《光榮與夢想——1932~1972年美國社會實錄》《總統之死》《最後的雄獅》《再見，黑暗》等