The Red Prince The Secret Lives of a Habsburg Archduke (Audible Audio Edition) Timothy Snyder Michael Damon Audible Studios Books
Download As PDF : The Red Prince The Secret Lives of a Habsburg Archduke (Audible Audio Edition) Timothy Snyder Michael Damon Audible Studios Books
Wilhelm Von Habsburg wore the uniform of the Austrian officer, the court regalia of a Habsburg archduke, the simple suit of a Parisian exile, the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece, and, every so often, a dress. He could handle a saber, a pistol, a rudder, or a golf club; he handled women by necessity and men for pleasure. He spoke the Italian of his archduchess mother, the German of his archduke father, the English of his British royal friends, the Polish of the country his father wished to rule, and the Ukrainian of the land Wilhelm wished to rule himself. In this exhilarating narrative history, prize-winning historian Timothy D. Snyder offers an indelible portrait of an aristocrat whose life personifies the wrenching upheavals of the first half of the twentieth century, as the rule of empire gave way to the new politics of nationalism. Coming of age during the First World War, Wilhelm repudiated his family to fight alongside Ukrainian peasants in hopes that he would become their king. When this dream collapsed he became, by turns, an ally of German imperialists, a notorious French lover, an angry Austrian monarchist, a calm opponent of Hitler, and a British spy against Stalin. Played out in Europe's glittering capitals and bloody battlefields, in extravagant ski resorts and dank prison cells, The Red Prince captures an extraordinary moment in the history of Europe, in which the old order of the past was giving way to an undefined future-and in which everything, including identity itself, seemed up for grabs.
The Red Prince The Secret Lives of a Habsburg Archduke (Audible Audio Edition) Timothy Snyder Michael Damon Audible Studios Books
Timothy Snyder once again does not disappoint!! I am 68 years old and never really had a grip on the obscure causes - and consequences of WWI. This book gives incredible insight to anyone who would like a deeper understanding of the world wars. Also a great read!!Product details
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The Red Prince The Secret Lives of a Habsburg Archduke (Audible Audio Edition) Timothy Snyder Michael Damon Audible Studios Books Reviews
Excellent book.
Great read! Timothy Snyder is a gifted storyteller as well as the world's foremost authority on the history of Eastern Europe!!!!
Very readable and informative book. It gives one a good take on eastern European history and sheds light on the situation in Ukraine.
The Red Prince is subtitled The Secret Lives of a Habsburg Archduke, but this is a biography of far more than one individual. This able work by Timothy Snyder does much to illuminate the history of Ukraine and Central and Eastern Europe during the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
When Wilhelm von Habsburg was born in 1895 he was a minor member of a minor branch of the Habsburg Dynasty, which had been a dominating force in European politics for 500 years. Wilhelm's immediate family were not in the main line of succession and thus lived out of the public eye as much as was possible for people known as Imperial and Royal Archdukes and Archduchesses. Wilhelm's father seems to have originated a family streak of rebelliousness, when he apparently began to make plans to establish himself as King of Poland before that country had even regained its independence. Wilhelm, as his father's youngest son, had to go further afield to rebel, and he chose the province of Ukraine, a region divided between Russia and Austria-Hungary. Before and during World War I Wilhelm was an advocate for Ukrainian independence and for some surprisingly left wing politics, and during the tumultuous period after World War I at one point seemed poised to become the country's King. Conflict between Poland and the Soviet Union put an end to hopes for Ukrainian independence, and Wilhelm was relegated to the life of a playboy in Paris, enjoying love affairs with both sexes until a financial scandal forced him to return to Austria. Then during the 1930s and 1940s Wilhelm dabbled in right wing politics, switched to anti-Nazi activities during World War II, and then in the early years of the Cold War apparently worked with Western countries spying on the Soviet Union. This led to his arrest and imprisonment by the Soviets, and he died in prison in 1948.
However colorful his life, Wilhelm von Hapsburg would not have merited a biography solely on his own account. He apparently left few letters or other written records, and there seem to be very few photographs as well. What makes The Red Prince so important is the good coverage Snyder provides of the complicated history of Ukraine. The region slipped back and forth between Austria-Hungary, Poland, and the Soviet Union until finally gaining independence in 1991. Snyder draws many excellent parallels between the nationalist politics pre- and post- World Wars I and II, the political turmoil that has plagued the former Soviet Union and its satellites since the end of the Cold War, and the kind of universal supra-nationalistic politics practiced by the Habsburgs and now by the European Union. The coverage of the Orange Revolution of 2004, when Ukraine took a decisive turn away from dictatorship towards democracy, is especially interesting.
Although Wilhelm himself seems to have left few written records, so that readers will not feel they know much about him personally, Snyder was able to recreate the lives of his parents, siblings, nieces and nephews and other relations. He reveals them to have been interesting and intelligent people with independent views, a far cry from the habitual stereotype of the Habsburgs as insufferably inbred mediocrities. Snyder also gives some fascinating portraits of some of Wilhelm's associates like Trebitsch Lincoln, who deserves a biography of his own, though it would probably be considered too bizarre to be true.
Excellent writting and a very informative look at a little know but important piece of history that still affects us today.
While the story itself is interesting, the author does not write in a way that compels the reader to really understand what this man was like; it reads like a textbook rather than a biography. The historical context is interesting, but the reader never gets a sense of what the Archduke was really like as a human being. This book would have succeeded better as a study of the Hapsburgs in Poland and Ukraine generally rather than story focused on an individual.
Snyder has brilliantly captured the end of the Habsburg era, the demise of the monarchy in Europe and the convulsive transition to nationalism that was Europe in the 20th century. Wonderfully researched and yet written in novel-like fashion, this is a book that is hard to put down. Snyder is in that select group of historians such as Robert Massie and Barbara Tuchman who know their history and know how to write in a superbly engaging fashion. Highly recommended!
Timothy Snyder once again does not disappoint!! I am 68 years old and never really had a grip on the obscure causes - and consequences of WWI. This book gives incredible insight to anyone who would like a deeper understanding of the world wars. Also a great read!!
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