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The Making of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1550-1700: An Interpretation

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Curiously, many historians have tried to esplain the decline and expiration of the Habsburgs, but the family's rise to power seems not to have been similarly examined. Evans bases his work solidly on primary sources in the period of the Central European Counter-Reformation. He also presents a balanced view of 16th century monarchy, since the consolidation of the Habsburg state was essentially the result of a skillful series of bilateral agreements between greater and lesser rulers. This highly regarded work received several major awards and has established itself as mandatory reading for any serious student of early modern history.

The title of the book is estremely misleading. Only from the Introduction it becomes clear that author belongs to the group determining themselves, as Historrians of the Culture. His main idea is that real making of the Habsbug Empire were not all politicall events and economical developements of the period, but creation of the more or less uniform cultural and ideological space - Baroque Civilization of the Eastern and Central Europe and Counter-Reformation embracing various territories, which formed the Empire. To read this book a reader should be well versed in ideas and personalities of the late Humanism, Reformation, and Counter-Reformation. Because author absolutely disinterested in political, economical and military History,which he treats as mere background and mentions off-hand, reader should have at least basic knowledge of the 30 Years War, the fight with Ottomans over Hungary, seige of Viena, and Emperial revanche on Balkans which in final count put the Empire on the road towards World War I and her demise, and History of Hungary and Bohemia as well. Book is of very little value for general reader, although it coud be interested to doctoral student, working on the History of the one of Habsburg lands and wishing to add some cultural dimension to his studies. The book was published 30 years ago and was greeted with loud accolades. For las 60 years European oligarhies are engaged in the process of the building of neo-Charlemagnic entity, a kind of the Fourth Reich, founded on the suppression of the national and nationalities, and protruding artificial Europeaniness. It is common to hear, that Habsburg Empire was a model for European coooperation, which was brutally shattered by crude nationalism of petty Nations, with aid of Woodroe's Wilson imbecility of "Nation's right for Self-Determination". For those who sees in the Nation State incarnation of Evil, and for those who for more than half a century are trying to create EU as the Center of Power equidistant from the US and the East, USSR is no more existing, this book is useful, as proofing them to be right. How this fits not ideology, but the Historical Truth, is a different subject.