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Title: The Austrians: A Thousand-Year Odyssey by Gordon Brooke-Shepherd ISBN: 0-7867-1102-7 Publisher: Carroll & Graf Publishers Pub. Date: 23 December, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.12 (8 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A seminal work
Comment: A seminal work of great magnitude but weak in its analysis of pre-20th century history. This book gives a whirlwind tour of Austrian History from 1200-1900. Then the book slows down and achieves greatness in describing the intricacies of Franz Joseph's rule as well as WWI and the road to Anschloss with Germany. The book picks up by describing the little know portion of Austrian history, the post 1945 Austria. At first divided between the major power Austria then became a 'permanently' neutral power, although a power that hosted a controversial leader in the form of Mr. Waldheim, a former Nazi. The book then covers the 'awakening' of Austria as it found itself post cold war. Although not up to date, it doesn't cover the election of the right wind Jorg Haider, this is an excellent introduction and survey of Austrian history.
Seth J. Frantzman
Rating: 4
Summary: Not perfect, but best overview of Austrian history avail
Comment: English-language books on the long-term history of Austria are relatively rare. Admittedly, Austria was one of the most historically interesting places in the world during the latter part of Franz Josef's reign-dozens of interesting books are available covering events and movements encompassing the intellectual flowering of Wien beginning in the late Victorian period. Giant personalities in the fields of visual art, psychology, music, philosophy, literature and theatre could seemingly be found in every coffee house in turn-of-the century Wien.
But judging from the available books, outside of the ever-busy Hapsburg family, little of interest to the rest of the world seems to have taken place before the last quarter of the 19th century. This is reflected in "The Austrians", which in spite of being a 483 page book, reaches the year 1866 by page 88. I think it would be fair to think of the book as more like a 140-year odyssey with a very long introduction.
Outside of the short shrift given to early Austrian history, I found this an enjoyable and informative book. Austria is unique among modern European nations in having been for centuries the spiritual center of one of Europe's largest empires, yet it is now a relatively small country of relatively little influence on the world stage-the teutonic rump left over from the mostly-voluntary dissolution of a multi-ethnic dual-monarchy. Given this relatively short period in which to develop a sense of unique national identity, Brook-Shepherd attempts to show in his book how seminal events in Austrian history are either influential on today's sense of nationhood (however strong that may be), or are least illustrative of typical characteristics of Austrian culture or character. This is a difficult task, and I think the author is only partially successful.
Still, it is a noble attempt, and although it sometimes feels as if the author is straining to make an obscure point about Austrian nationhood, in general, this doesn't really interfere with the book. The author has spent significant time in post-war Austria and has a number of interesting contacts both within what is left of the Hapsburg family and within the Austrian political sphere. He certainly cannot be blamed for taking use of these journalistic and personal contacts in substantiating his history, and unlike some reviewers, I did not feel that this was excessive-it did not distract from the flow of the book for me at all. I cannot say this about the excessive use of footnotes, which I found extremely distracting.
Overall, I found this an enjoyable and informative book. In spite of some flaws, it is the best single-volume English-language source I've found on what is unfortunately, something of an obscure subject. I find it to be complementary to Andrew Wheatcroft's "The Hapsburgs." It takes a very different approach and they two books have relatively minimal overlap.
Rating: 3
Summary: SHOULD HAVE A DIFFERENT TITLE
Comment: I found this to be an interesting book for its coverage of historical events within Austria during the 20th century (i.e., the fall of the Hapsburg monarchy and the Nazi occupation). Brook-Shepherd goes into pretty good detail on these events. However, he devotes much of the book to the 20th Century, and, in a seeming contradiction to the title, does not give as much attention to pre-20th Century developments. For example, he does not give much detail about Maria Therea or Joesph II. Perhaps he should have devoted the book to only the 20th Century.
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Title: The Habsburgs: Embodying Empire by Andrew Wheatcroft ISBN: 0140236341 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 May, 1997 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: The Habsburg Monarchy, 1809-1918: A History of the Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary (Phoenix Book; P683) by Alan John Percivale Taylor ISBN: 0226791459 Publisher: University of Chicago Press Pub. Date: 01 December, 1983 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: A Nervous Splendor: Vienna, 1888-1889 by Frederic Morton ISBN: 014005667X Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 1980 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: The Siege of Vienna by John Stoye ISBN: 1841580678 Publisher: Birlinn Publishers Pub. Date: 01 March, 2001 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: The Austrian Mind: An Intellectual and Social History 1848-1938 by William M. Johnston ISBN: 0520049551 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: 01 June, 1983 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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