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Title: The Habsburgs: Embodying Empire by Andrew Wheatcroft ISBN: 0-14-023634-1 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: May, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.18 (11 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Interesting ideas, but execution could have been better
Comment: This book is not a history of Austria-as the title indicates, it is a history of the Habsburgs, the hereditary rulers of Austria. As I mentioned in my review of Brook-Shepherd's book, "The Austrians" (a book that is complementary to this one, with relatively little overlap), there really isn't a great deal of material available in English on Austrian history-at least not on events taking place before the latter half of the 19th century.
From the traditional historical point of view-that in which history is the chronology recounting of war and changes in power-nothing of significance really happened in Austria that wasn't somehow associated with the Habsburgs. Whether or not this is the case is the subject of a different book-the subject of this one is the Habsburg family itself. Although their presence lasted longer in Austria than anywhere else, this powerful family also ruled the Netherlands, and Spain, and often provided the figurehead for the Holy Roman Empire.
Probably to an extent greater than any other royal house, the Habsburgs had their greatest successes not on the battlefield, but in the bedroom. They married their way to what at one point was the largest empire in the world, encompassing not only the majority of the German-speaking lands, but also the Lowlands, the Iberian peninsula, and the Spanish territories in North and South America, and Asia. Quite a feat for a dynasty that had been chased out of their hereditary home and namesake 300 years earlier by pitchfork-wielding Swiss peasants. The Habsburg story is more concerned with the issues of power than it is with warfare, which often went quite badly for them.
Given a unique and interesting subject, the author takes a somewhat non-traditional approach. As he explains in the preface "More and more I found that the Habsburgs expressed their sense of missions and their objectives obliquely, through a kind of code." Wheatcroft attempts to show how the Habsburgs manipulated symbolism and other communication mechanisms to further their goals and to set themselves apart as the unquestionable lords of Central Europe. I think the author is only partially successful in this, although I found nothing in his approach that seemed unreasonable. Several of the author's explanations have been useful to me in interpreting symbolism that can still be seen today in Austria, such as the designation "K.K" and the gilded presence of the Order of the Golden Fleece on statues and paintings (This was a chivalric order borrowed from the Burgundians when they didn't need it any longer giving the Habsburgs an opportunity to run their own good ole boys club.)
On the negative side, I found the book difficult to read. While the subject matter certainly lends itself to confusion, dealing with an inbred family that unimaginatively reused the same names over and over again, sometimes with different numbers in different contexts for the same ruler, perhaps the author could have used a more straightforward outline. The book tends to spiral a bit, mixing up events taking place at different times in order to make a point about continuity and a repeating pattern of Habsburg behavior. I finally dog-eared the family trees appearing in the Appendix so that I could flip back to them in an attempt to keep all the cousins, nieces, and nephews straight.
This is not a traditional history. While I don't feel that the author necessarily builds totally plausible case for his conception of the Habsburgs as being Europe's premier power of propaganda, I do think that he offers genuine and useful insight. I question the execution more than the concept, which I think has some validity.
Rating: 4
Summary: A rather interesting and scholarly read
Comment: There's not much more I can say to the positive that hasn't already been said, but I can say that the reviewer from San Diego has it all wrong, and happens to be an academic imbecile. The Habsburg daughters look so ugly that only their cousins would marry them? First, if you were cousin to an ugly girl, would you neccessarily marry her either? IN addition, the reviewer does not understand the benefits of keeping a line of inheritance in the family. Before Charles VI's Pragmatic Sanction, the Habsburg lands had to all be kept intact by intermarriage. Now, as to the criticisms levelled at the amount of unreferenced names, there are charts in the back that help identify people and where they belong. As for the criticism about it not being focused on any one Habsburg, that is because this is a family history. Trust me, without this book, the Habsburgs would be a HELL of a lot harder to learn about...I had to do it the hard way (ie: tracing family trees and such myself).
Rating: 2
Summary: Interesting theory though hardly unique.
Comment: Many positive things have been said about this book (mostly valid) so I'll just jump to three sticking points which potential readers should keep in mind before buying it.
1.This book asserts that the Habsburgs consciously created and manipulated their own families mythology to a degree unseen in Europe. This is greatly misleading for it forgets (unbelievably) the other great mythology making machines around at the time (the Medici's in Florence, the Bourbons in France and so on).
2.Though the Habsburgs did manipulate their image via various means it cannot be stated with the certainty with which Wheatcroft does that it was a conscious family project from the days of Rudolf I (1218-1291). Certainly it preoccupied his later descendents but Rudoplf and his immediate progeny were simply behaving in a pattern familiar to most rulers of the time.
3. I must also stress that the book is not an easy read, mostly due to the fact that the author jumps around the historic timeline and throws in a few dozen Hapsburg names (some with no numbers attached which can be really confusing seeing as the Habsburgs shared names profusely) to confuse things even more. I also disliked the references made to figures of whom we know nothing about and who the author says nothing about.
Oh and this is not a history of the rulers themselves but rather a book on how the Habsburgs manipulated their image down the centuries. Do not buy it if you want to find out about individual rulers achievements, acts etc. Very little of that can be found in this book.
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Title: Twilight of the Habsburgs: The Life and Times of Emperor Francis Joseph by Alan Warwick Palmer ISBN: 0871136651 Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press Pub. Date: March, 1997 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: The Habsburg Monarchy, 1809-1918: A History of the Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary by Alan John Percivale Taylor ISBN: 0226791459 Publisher: University of Chicago Press Pub. Date: December, 1983 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: The Austrians: A Thousand-Year Odyssey by Gordon Brooke-Shepherd, Gordon Brook-Shepherd ISBN: 0786711027 Publisher: Carroll & Graf Pub. Date: 23 December, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: A Nervous Splendor: Vienna, 1888-1889 by Frederic Morton ISBN: 014005667X Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: October, 1980 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: The Fall of the House of Habsburg by Edward Crankshaw ISBN: 0140064591 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: January, 1983 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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