Customer Reviews

What Life Was Like: At Empire's End : Austro-Hungarian Empire Ad 1848-1918

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This is one of a series of books covering major events and era in history. It is a smallish coffee table book and quite pretty and well made with high quality of paper and very nice binding.

This particular work covers the period in Europe between the years 1848 and 1918; the fall and collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The text consists of little bits and splats of this and that follows a chronological line. There is not much depth to the information offered up in this book but then that really is not the reason it was written and published. This is a very brief introduction to this fascinating period of time, and I do mean brief. While all of the information contained here appears to be correct; it never the less hardly scratches the surface.

The strength of this book, and the reason I checked it from the library, are the photographs and reproductions of paintings, both in color and black and white of this period of time. I must say that the editors of this work did a bang-up job here. One section that I found interesting was a chapter dealing with the various cultures encompassed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This was a very large area of the earth and a very diverse area. Illustrations show typical dress and village scenes.

This was a most interesting time and place in history and the opulence displayed by the ruling class was a sight to behold. It is doubtful if we shall ever see such a glittering time again. Now don't take me wrong...there was much to criticize during that time and I most certainly would not like to have been a member of the lower class, the working class or the peasants. Times were hard and that should not be forgotten. But still and all, if you viewed things from the top, there were delights to behold. Of course much of this story centers around Vienna, which for a brief moment in history, was the cultural and artistic center of the world.

Like another reviewer here, I should hope that a book like this (A sort of book I call a "seed book"), should stimulate the reader to delve further into this area of history. There was seldom a time like it before and there certainly will not be a time like it again.

I pretty well have to give this one three stars and from my point of view the three stars are for the pictures and photographs....if that were all I were rating in this book I would give it five stars.

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks

Recently picked up this title through a remaindered book catalog and enjoyed the wonderful illustrations. We had the pleasure of taking a riverboat cruise down the Danube last year and were captivated by the places we visited in the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia, and Hungary. Many of the historic sites we saw are shown in the book as they looked over a century ago. Recommended.

A good intruduction, and very well illustrated---in fact, this is largely a picture book of photos, paintings, advertisements etc. of the late-19th and early 20th Century. A few brief bios---Pacifist and Nobel-Laureate Bertha Kinski, The last emperor and his (probably) anorexic wife Elizabeth--the Mayerling affair, national costumes of the many peoples stuffed into this sprawling Empire. Lots of snippets of info and color to whet your taste for a really MEATY History of this faded and falling institution, and a hint of what men lost to nationalism, the coming Wars, and future squallor and prosperity alike. Ahead of its time and hopelessly dated, life dictated from Vienna was bound to eventually fail. Grand 20th Century writer Josef Roth could never be fooled by his Empire's flaws, and yet he mourned the passing of this glittering world--and the unifying influence of his Emperor--for the rest of his life. Cradle of Kafka and Roth, of Rilke, Lugosi, Weille, and so many others, the end of the Austro-Hungarian empire is endlessly fascinating and sad. Let not this book, at least, be your final look at it.