The Habsburgs: Embodying Empire

Easy read, extensive notes too. I learned a lot and enjoyed every minute of it

After visiting Vienna, I really wanted to learn more about the Hapburgs. To my surprise, very little is available in English. This book does a great job of telling the beginnings and the interplay between the Spanish and Austrian dynasties. However, it does fall apart when you get into the late 19th century and the actual fall of the empire. It left me wanting to know more. I'm still looking for another book that covers the fall.This book is worth the time but if you're looking for the conclusion, it never comes.

I wanted to read this book as i am getting ready to visit Vienna in April. The book by Mr Wheatcroft is good because his account touches on several things that were really interesting.For example, the author explains the different personalities of the Holy Roman Emperors and Emperors of Austria.He also does a good job in explaining the times in which this emperors reigned which gives you a very good view of the circunstamces at that time. I also enjoyed the motivation behind important buildings for the Habsburgs like El Escorial in Spain and the Catacombs in St Stephen Church in Vienna.For someone who wants an introduction to the Habsburgs is a good books altough it has several flaws. One is that the author " jumps" from one event to another or from one emperor to the other.For example,he'll be talking about Charles V and all of the sudden he starts talking about his sons or future emperors without letting you know about it.I found myself going back several paragraphs to understand why he was doing that.Second, he doesnt really explain how the Holy Roman Empire gets started.He just mentions Charlemagne several times and the reader has to imagine the rest.His account sometimes is fast and sometimes is detailed which forced me to use other books with genealogies to help me understand which emperor is which and where does he come from.The other problem with this book is that it looks like the author thinks that the reader knows a lot of things so he doesnt describe or gives definition to events,people and places that i didnt know.For example, Metternich is mentioned really fast and just by his last name, so if you dont knoe who Metternich is, you'll have to look for him in another book to know who he is.Besides it's flaws, is a good book to get you started.

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This book gives a great narrative of the overall Habsburg dynasties, but does not dwell on any particular period for more than a chapter. This book is great for those with a moderate knowledge of European geography and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a general overview of the Habsburgs.

Another fine addition to my royal history collection. Quite a influential family.

Very interesting take on the history of the Hapsburg family and their successes and failures in molding an empire within the context of the near modern European nation-state idea.

The book covers a wide length of time and covers the entire empire, Spain, Netherlands, Austria and Hungary. While I learned alot, there is much more to the empire than can be covered in this book. It is easy to tell the writer is passionate about the subject and has created in me an interest in learn more about the specific rulers and territories.

It took me a long time, and the print was very small, but I finished it. This was not the history of the Habsburgs I had hoped for. Following a few days in Vienna I wanted a chronological history of the family but this concentrated on the dynasty as a whole and how they perceived themselves and wished to be perceived. I also found Andrew Wheatcroft's style very annoying; he jumped from person to person to justify his theme and sometimes seemed to repeat himself. I felt I was expected to know the history.The family tree helped but even here we had " upper case names denote either King of Spain, Holy Roman Emperor or Emperor of Austria" ( I may have got the titles wrong but there were 3 alternatives) which doesn't help sort out who followed who. I would have liked more illustrations as the whole book was about image. Wheatcroft often went into considerable detail about certain portraits but they weren't included in the small number of pictures. We then had pictures of people who hardly got a mention in the book.All in all I found it very disappointing. That said I do feel I know a little more about European history and the importance of the Habsburg's.

I have been looking for a book on the Habsburgs, how they rose to power and controlled Central European politics for some time. I was expecting more from this book. The book is well researched with an impressive bibliography. The author obviously knows his subject well. The early chapters were interesting about how the Habsburgs built their power and wealth. As the book prgressed the main historical events were mentioned at best in pasing, as in the case of Martin Luther and the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. The Thirty Year was was also dismissed with little discussion. There was no details of the Habsburgs policy making. How did the Habsburgs form an Alliance with Great Britain against France and later Prussia. If it was about the family, there was no mention that King Phillip II was also King of England by his marriage to Queen Mary. The Emperor Charles V as a chapter devoted to him. He is mentioned several times in the context of paintings of him sitting on a horse. There are no pictures of Charles V in the book. The pictures are of poor quality as are the maps and family tree. These failing may be due to the editor and publisher than to the writer. The book is worth buying as a introduction to the Habsburgs and the their rise to power in Central Europe. But for a more detail book on the power and politics of Central Europe during the Habsburg reign, look elsewhere.

I read this is a marvellous first approach to Central European history, politics and the Hapsburgs while skiing outside Innsbruck. Some chapters are full of impenetrable interconnections of treaties and relations and totally new facts, others are wholly intriguing and easy to read, like an easy novel. Remember, it is just the first toe into this area, you (I) must read more to try to decipher those difficult chapters. I recommend reading "the Hapsburgs" at one level, to make sightseeing in the Hapsburs centres like Innsbruck more interesting and at another to understand how middle Europe buffers Western Europe from the Turks, Moslems, the Asian Hordes and the modern Communist Russian States. I now have a new area of interest.

In the early chapters, I feel that the author fails to introduce the subject matter (political scenario and characters involved) with clarity. As a consequence, I have found myself getting lost trying to figure out who all the characters are and the overall events occurring in each period of history.The later chapters get better, but sometimes, the author spends a long time on some themes, such as the order of the golden fleece, and very little time on other themes which might considered of greater importance.

covers the empire from 1020 - 1995, with pictures and maps, a excellent read