Customer Reviews
Consummate background to the sound of guns - By: Julie Cutler, 03 Feb 2008 
Building on his experiences writing his previous 2 year background to the death by suicide of the previous Austrian Crown Prince (Rudolf) ("A Nervous Splendour: Vienna, 1888-89"), Morton has developedin confidence as a social historian. I think the best thing about his writing is that it is so stuffed with snippets of information that you selectin your own mind the themes that best attract you.
All I particularly knew about the subject was "archduke assassinated, Sarajevo-start of World War One." Franz Ferdinand, a second uneasy peace-making princein waiting to the aged Emperor Franz Josef dies a tragically violent death on his wedding anniversary after surviving the previous assassination attempt earlier that day. With him dies his wife Sophie- who he married for lovein defiance of the Establishment. In revenge the Establishment forced him to accept that her mere descent from nobility rather than through the Habsburgs's centuries long inbreeding scheme meant that she would always be several turns downin official ceremonies & that their children could never inherit. Court officials would even snootily deny her accommodationin Imperial Palaces until the ageing Franz Josef had graciously dispensed with the natural order - for that one occasion only. Naturallyin 21st century Britain we can look down on this royal flimflam from a bygone age (Don't mention the Duchess of Cornwall! I did once, but I think I got away with it). He receives no state funeral. He liked roses a lot.
What Morton emphasises is how strange it is thatin the previous year Stalin, Trotsky, Hitler & Tito were all presentin smugly conventional Vienna. In fact the Austrian authorities were happily nurturing the seeds of the Russian Revolution. Anything to allow a thorn to stickin the side to Tsarist Russia. He reflects Freud's psychoanalytical dogmatic battles with the more sensible upstart Jung- contrasting Franz Josef's reaction to another annoyingly passionate rebellious heir.
That & King George V was too scared to ride his horsein a London park anymore because he didn't like suffragettes jeering at him. Superb- ~I couldn't put it down.
The twilight of an empire ends with the thunder of guns. - By: Mary Whipple, 04 Sep 2003 Choosing to focus on just two climactic years, Morton manages to recreate not only the splendor of the last days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but the vibrant intellectual & cultural life of Vienna, the seething nationalism of the Balkans, the Machiavellian intrigue among the political rulers of the European nations & Russia, & the human frailties of the seemingly larger-than-life characters presented here. Best of all, Morton is rigorously selectivein his choice of detail, bringing to life the activities of a broad cross-section of Viennese societyin 1913-1914, while simultaneously recreating the intellectual ambience which made possible the later rise of some of the most influential leaders of the twentieth century--Trotsky, Stalin, Adler, Freud, Jung, Lenin, Hitler, Tito, & a host of others.
Morton's seriousness of purpose & his scholarship are undeniable, yet his primary contribution here, it seems to me, is his ability to make these historical personages come to life, to make the reader feel that they were real, breathing humans with both virtues & frailties, & not the cardboard characters one finds so oftenin history books. Vienna, too, has a real heart, albeit beatingin ¾ time. From its masquerades & balls by all classes of society, to its revolutionary movements, innumerable newspapers & pamphlets, lively coffee houses, & seemingly endless games of political oneupsmanship, one feels the ferment & activity which must lead, eventually, to change. The liveliness of the city is a visual & intellectual contrast to the formality & frailty of Emperor Franz Josef, making the twilight of his empire understandable & its demise inevitable. But even the demise is stylish--as "The World War [came] to the city by the Danube, [it came] dressed as a ball. Tra-la...Hurrah!" Mary Whipple
A classic and unique account of a nodal point in history - By: , 17 Sep 2001 This book should be read by anyone with a genuine interestin the watershed that began the First World War. Taking as his cue Disraeli's assertion that biography is the best form of history, Frederic Morton gives us an account of the intellectual ferment that was Viennain 1913, seen through the lives of not only the prime moversin the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, but also of the great artists, writers & musiciansin the city at the time. A particular strength of the author is to pull out of this tapestry individual threads of human experience, happy or sad. This "slice of history" approach works superbly, generating a gathering stormin which ultimately the assassin Princip appears no more than a product of his time.
