A review by julis
The Habsburgs: Embodying Empire by Andrew Wheatcroft

challenging informative medium-paced

4.0

I requested for Xmas books about Europe outside of the UK and this sure qualifies, largely because at some point in the last 900 years the Habsburgs have wandered through every inch of it except (and only arguably) France and (even more arguably) the Balkans.

The single biggest problem with this book is it is too short. I think that Wheatcroft was trying to avoid covering things he felt sufficiently covered in other books, but I haven’t read those other books so I was left trying to pick up the pieces as Habsburgs revolved in and out of the focus. Also, as part of trying to draw parallels across the Habsburg family tree, the timeline can sometimes jump around, which is very irritating (and not helped by certain people deciding to be Franz Joseph I even though there haven’t been any others).

HOWEVER he kicks off in the 1100s and ends with Otto, which is pretty cool when most Habsburg histories prefer to talk about 1520-1815 and then tangentially acknowledge 1914. Also he remembers that the Habsburgs were very, very bad to their Jewish subjects and that actually the whole of Europe was pretty damn bad, and frankly my bar for “remembering that Jews historically exist” is in the ground but he cleared it by several feet. So that’s cool.