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The Habsburgs

The Rise and Fall of a World Power

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The Habsburgs

By: Martyn Rady
Narrated by: Simon Bowie
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

In The Habsburgs, Martyn Rady tells the epic story of a dynasty and the world it built - and then lost - over nearly a millennium. From modest origins, the Habsburgs grew in power to gain control of the Holy Roman Empire in the fifteenth century. Then, in just a few decades, their possessions rapidly expanded to take in a large part of Europe stretching from Hungary to Spain, and from the Far East to the New World. The family continued to dominate Central Europe until the catastrophe of the First World War.

With its seemingly disorganized mass of large and small territories, its tangle of laws and privileges and its medley of languages, the Habsburg Empire has always appeared haphazard and incomplete. But here Martyn Rady shows the reasons for the family's incredible endurance, driven by the belief that they were destined to rule the world as defenders of the Roman Catholic Church, guarantors of peace and patrons of learning. The Habsburg emperors were themselves absurdly varied in their characters - from warlords to contemplatives, from clever to stupid, from idle to frenzied - but all driven by the same sense of family mission. Scattered around the world, countless buildings, institutions and works of art continue to bear witness to their overwhelming impact.

The Habsburgs is the definitive history of a remarkable dynasty that, for better or worse, shaped Europe and the world.

© Martyn Rady 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

 17th Century 18th Century 19th Century Europe Medieval Modern Colonial Period Middle Ages Imperialism Latin American Crusade Interwar Period

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Critic reviews

This is probably the best book ever written on the Habsburgs in any language, certainly the best I have ever read ... a brilliant achievement. Students, scholars and the general reader will never find a better guide to Habsburg history. No one will ever again know as much about the subject as Rady. (Alan Sked)
Riveting ... It is impossible to imagine a more erudite and incisive history of this fascinating, flawed and ultimately tragic dynasty. (Paul Lay)
In The Habsburgs, Martyn Rady has produced a Rolls-Royce of a narrative that motors through ten centuries of history with an effortlessness that belies the intellectual horsepower beneath the bonnet ... The vast cast of characters is depicted with a mix of insight, sympathy and astringent Gibbonian wit that makes them instantly memorable ... [Rady's] book sheds light on the present almost as brightly as it illuminates the past. (John Adamson)
Magnificent ... Rady maintains unerring poise as he steers through the depths and complexities of his material. His erudition seems effortless, he never gets bogged down in detail, his prose is pellucid, and he spices the narrative with delightfully dry asides and telling anecdotes. (Rupert Christiansen)
Rady restores the Habsburgs to the heart of European history ... An enjoyable, clever and colourful introduction to the subject, with plenty of memorable details. (Dominic Sandbrook)
The Habsburgs are a writer's gift, offering a regal cast of mad, colourful and deeply flawed characters ... Rady's sparkling study is certainly a good place to start. (Mark Mazower)
This volume takes it all in. That Mr. Rady can, in under 350 pages, cover everything from the division of the family's lands in the Swiss Argau in 990 to the surrender of power in 1918 by Charles, the last Habsburg monarch, without sacrificing essential details or losing the reader's attention, is a feat of both scholarship and storytelling. (A. Wess Mitchell)
An ambitious, wide-ranging, briskly written narrative that crams a vast amount of often surprising information into twenty-nine dense but very readable chapters. (Ritchie Robertson)
Lucid and entertaining ... Rady is as good on the Habsburgs' artistic and cultural legacy as he is on the politics. (David Crane)
This panoramic account manages to make more sense of the European dynasty than its rulers often did. (John Gallagher)
All stars
Most relevant
A nice general history of the dynasty including their cultural and political histories. Good if you want an introduction in my mind.

Good general history

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This book is good in parts and has a general overview of the Habsburg dynasty from its foundation to collapse and beyond. I found some parts really engaging and enjoyable such as Charles V, Phillip II, Archduchesses and Franz Ferdinand. Others I found simply boring and had to driver through them to carry out. The introduction is slow, I didn't get it or the message and found the conclusion not sufficient enough, the family today is glossed over. A paragraph got Otto von Habsburg is given, but nothing of his son and the head of the family today Karl von Habsburg. It is a useful read and Rady offers a fair view. The end is poignant and I feel the regret lile so many others of the empire being completely gone and insignificant today.

Good, Not Great

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This was impressive. Covers a vast range of complex history - both in terms of timeframe and geographic extent - and does it clearly and engagingly throughout. He even manages to produce a coherent chapter on the Thirty Years War, which is no mean feat.

The parts I knew (the early 17th century, the Napoleonic Wars, the turn of the 20th century through to the collapse) I noticed little to quibble with, which makes me think the rest is probably pretty solid too.

Good job.

An impressively clear overview

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This is a tough review to write. As a non historian who has lived and traveled extensively in Central and Eastern Europe , I came to this book with some background knowledge. Accordingly , there were times when I felt the amount dedicated to certain events was too short e.g. Charles V and the 30 years war. Equally , my knowledge of the Empire in the 18th century was enhanced.
It is always a problem for historians to decide how much context of what was happening outside the core subject to include in the narrative. Certainly, I felt at least a reference to Marlborough when discussing the Spanish War of Succession would have helped UK readers.

I do recommend the book to any reader with an interest in European history. It will be a stimulus to follow up on certain areas you previously knew little about.

Narration is good. By and large , Simon Bowle opens well with German expressions and Hungarian and Slavic names.

Finally, my thanks for giving me my Pub Quiz question of the year. Why does the Brazilian national soccer team play in yellow and green?

4 Minutes per year is a tough ask.

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This is a quite short history of the empire, none the less interesting. Simon Bowie the narrator is very good. I would have liked more detail about the first world war and the end of the Empire.

Good History.

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