The Fall of the House of Habsburg [Paperback]

Edward Crankshaw (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 27, 1983

The downfall of the Hadsburg monarchy was more than just the end of a great and powerful dynasty. It meant the destruction of the old European order and marked a turning point in world history. Edward Crankshaw's distinguished study offers a compelling account of the final decades of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Product Details

• Paperback: 420 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (January 27, 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0333319265
• ISBN-13: 978-0140064599
• ASIN: 0140064591
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 4.9 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #538,270 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent history, February 7, 2008

By 

A. Lowry - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Fall of the House of Habsburg (Paperback)

One of Crankshaw's best, this forthrightly conservative and sympathetic book is premised on the idea that, whatever its faults, Austria's solution to the problems of nationalism and the Balkans were not self-evidently worse than what followed in Europe. He's deliberately rebutting A.J.P. Taylor, as he also does in his biography of Bismarck.

But Crankshaw is too good a writer, and too intelligent, to beat a hobbyhorse. He writes magisterially of Franz Josef's reign and the many personalities who came and went. His description of the Franco-Austrian war is particularly good.

Readable and humane -- not to be missed by anyone who enjoys history.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A little special pleading but still good, January 8, 2008

By 

N. MacPherson "hazmat" (Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Fall of the House of Habsburg (Paperback)

Edward Crankenshaw's sympathetic history of the last decades of the Habsburg Empire is an excellent and informative read and good to keep along side the equally good but slightly too harsh history by AJP Taylor. The one criticism of the book is that the author shows an obvious sympathy with the dynasty rather than simply relating the story. Comments on the Hungarians and reference to their manipulation and abuse of the 1867 Compromise to their own benefit are spoken in a censorious manner. The facts may be true but the Hungarians had a number of good reasons for not being crazy about the Empire or its ruling dynasty. To expect anything other than temporary and conditional loyalty from them is expecting too much from a nation the dynasty would have destroyed if it could.

43 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars B.Wells, Esquire, reviews The Fall of the House of Habsburg, December 13, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Fall of the House of Habsburg (Paperback)

This is a marvelous little history of one of the great royal dynasties of Eurpoe which came to an end with the First World War.

Proof of the universal appeal of this book and Crankshaw's writing style lies in the fact that this reviewer has read the book at three different times in his life (once as an undergraduate, another time at the conclusion of law school and yet another time about a year ago). Even though each of these three readings occurred at times when the reviewer's outlook and background on the subject matter was quite different, he derived pleasure and something new with each reading.