Customer Reviews

The Habsburg Monarchy 1618-1815 (New Approaches to European History)

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As the author Charles Ingrao states in his preface to this excellent history, it can be difficult to combine the brevity of a textbook history with the completeness and detail sought by the scholar. Fortunately, Mr. Ingrao provides fascinating and detailed portraits of the historical background and the interacting personalities of the period. The Habsburg monarchs display personality traits which often influence the historical events of the time ( the counter-revolutionary zeal of

Ferdinand II instigating the thirty years' war ). Prince Eugene of Savoy is certainly one of the most brilliant military leaders of any time, and his prominant role in the defeat of the army of Louis XIV is emphasized in this book. The history begins at the thirty years' war in 1618 and extends through the numerous challenges to the Habsburg Monarchy, including the Turks, the French, and the Prussians. The enlghtened rule ( and reform ) of both Maria Theresa and her son Joseph II are discussed in the later chapters leading into the early nineteenth century. Mr. Ingrao has taken care to incorporate details of economic as well as social-cultural events to support his thesis that the Habsburg Monarchy was a very positive and active influence on the society of this period, and what a period for the empire!

For those interested in the history of Austria or the Habsburg Monarchy, this book offers the extra details to make history interesting. The personalities are fascinating, and the historical background of the period often anticipates our questions or concerns and leads into absorbing discussions of these issues.

Habsburg history between Charles V and Metternich is almost a dead zone for Anglophone readers. The Thirty Years Wars sparks a bit of interest, as does Rudolphine Prague. But unless I am mistaken, there is no biography available in English of any of the Emperors from Ferdinand II until Maria Theresia. And even she hasn't received a serious study in English since Edward Crankshaw's in the 1960's. Louis XIV continues to receive regular biographies and specialist studies. Yet Leopold I, his great rival, who reigned for nearly 50 years (1658-1705), is almost completely ignored.

Ingrao's book covers a lot of material in a fairly short space and is necessarily cursory in many respects. I also thought he was much more interested in the 18th century than the 17th. He clearly admires Maria Theresia, though is not blind to her faults, and treats Joseph II more kindly than he perhaps deserves. (Joseph seems to have been the perfect illustration of the dangers of what Michael Oakeshott famously called Rationalism in Politics).

Ingrao's treatment of the cultural contributions of the Habsburg Empire, its greatest legacy, is patchy. There is no mention of the great Austro-Bohemian composers of the 17th century - Biber, Schmelzer etc, nor of Fux in the 18th.

Still, as an up-to-date well-written survey of a complex and fascinating subject, Ingrao's book is very welcome.

Now all you post-doctoral history students, stop mucking about and start writing some detailed studies of the topics Ingrao could merely touch on.

This is a great book that covers in good detail the rise of Austria under the rule of the Habsburg monarchy from the 30 Years War to the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Charles Ingrao gives great insight into the minds and personalities of all the Habsburg monarchs, including some of the less known ones like Ferdinand II and Joseph II. He explains how the nation had to develop from three kingdoms with one king to one nation under an emperor. Also covered is the role of the Habsburgs as Holy Roman Emperors and their dominance in Germany until the rise of Prussia in the mid 18th Century when Austria was forced to look east for power.
A more long lasting issue covered, that even has effects to the present day, is the issue of nationality and ethnicity within the empire. This is the issue that arguably brought the end to the multinational empire and has caused so many wars in the Balkans in the past two decades.
My only real complaint is that at times Ingrao can get a bit bogged down in the details, and it can be a little hard to follow. Also, it should be stated that the book is inevitably biased a bit toward Austria and therefore is slightly anti-Prussia and French at times.
Overall though, if you want a good overview on the development of the early Austrian monarchy this is a great choice.

I don't normally write book reviews but the subject matter of the most recent review (see below) has provoked me into a response. The Congress of Vienna in which the shape of post Napoleonic Europe was determined was from September 1814 to June 1815. It is important to understand that the congress was organized to "settle" things after Napoleon went into exile on Elba in 1814. It continued through the Hundred Days that ended at Waterloo. The egregious error cited below is not an error at all.

The Habsburgs are one of the great ruling dynasties in history. From their medieval origins in Austria the family would eventually occupy thrones that dominated much of central and eastern Europe before a series of setbacks and political shifts brought about the end of their monarchy in 1918. Yet as Charles Ingrao argues, far too much attention is focused on the final century of the monarchy's existence, which has the effect of distorting our understanding of it and how it survived for so long. His book, which is a survey of the monarchy from the start of the Thirty Years' War to the end of the Napoleonic Wars, examines the factors which he sees as shaping the "distinctive course of Austrian history," factors which he argues continued to define the development of the monarchy for the duration of its existence.

As Ingrao notes, the Habsburgs faced formidable challenges in governing their vast and diverse territories, which left them vulnerable to both local resistance and external threats. Yet he shows how the Habsburgs pragmatically turned these challenges into strengths, building an enduring empire that survived and even thrived during the early modern period. One of the foremost of these was its geographical position, which left it vulnerable to attack yet also valuable as an ally. Such alliances were the product of deft diplomacy, something the Habsburgs had to learn to master not only in dealing with the other powers of Europe but with the numerous minorities that made up their subjects. This diversity forced successive emperors to pursue consensus rather than confrontation with local elites, which left the monarchy weaker as an institution than many of its contemporaries in Europe but also served as a form of restraint in its international policy, as the monarchy was forced to avoid wars of aggression for which they would be unable to mobilize the necessary support. Their policies may not have made for the grandest of European states, but they helped the monarchy endure long after many of its contemporaries exhausted themselves through inconclusive wars.

Such an approach can run counter to preconceived notions about the Habsburg monarchy, yet Ingrao's arguments are convincing. Through them, the Habsburg empire's status as a great power and its survival over so many centuries become comprehensible to readers, helping them to understand not just its endurance but its long-overshadowed vitality as well. Well-written and thought-provoking, this book is an excellent introduction for anyone seeking to understand the history of the Habsburg empire and how such a seemingly unworkable state ruled so much of Europe for as long as it did.

This is one of the best books on the subject period available. Histories of Austria prior to the rise of Napoleon are rare, and while AJP Taylor's work is probably better written, it does not cover the period prior to 1809. The Habsburg Monarchy is well organized, contains an even-handed approach to Austrian history (it neither condemns the Monarchy as doomed to dissolution nor praises it as an early experiment in multi-ethnic nation building) and contains enough information on the individual emperors and empresses to bring them to life.

My only complaint is that ebb and flow of the major conflicts of this period (the Thirty Years War, the War of Spanish Succession, the War of Austrian Succession, and the Seven Years War) is given only brief attention and leaves the reader wanting to know more.

I don't normally write book reviews but the subject matter of the most recent review (see below) has provoked me into a response. The Congress of Vienna in which the shape of post Napoleonic Europe was determined was from September 1814 to June 1815. It is important to understand that the congress was organized to "settle" things after Napoleon went into exile on Elba in 1814, and that it continued through the Hundred Days that ended at Waterloo. The egregious error cited below is not an error at all.