The Austrians: A Thousand-Year Odyssey

When I look at a map of Europe, Austria has always been a puzzle to me, primarily because of its non-alignment with rest of Western Europe. This book has helped me to be less puzzled by Austria and, maybe, to better understand Austrians.

This was very well-written. But, as many here have pointed out, the book seems to exclusively focus on the 19th and 20th centuries, and the previous eight hundred years take up around 80 pages, I think. Now while this book was very informative and dispersed interesting anecdotes among all that history, I really do wish it focus on all thousand years of that odyssey. One must also keep in mind that this boo is from the 90s, and therefore, slightly dated. However, it is understandable why Brook-Shepherd didn't focus on earlier Austria. His primary sources, especially the people he knows, are big players in the 20th century Austria. And he begins the book with explaining that for some reason it took so long for Austrians to mark themselves as something other than a German-state, even with the empire attached to them. I might be wrong, but he seems to be describing the history of the Austrian identity as well, especially with the really interesting analysis of Austrian, and specifically, Viennese character. He notices trends in Austrian history, such as the deciders of its fate have usually not been Austrians themselves. And this really was a good book to look into if you want a good history of the country. It seems that for learnin about Austria's earlier history it might be more prudent to focus on the history of the HRE and the Hapsburgs. In conclusion, I enjoyed this book. It wasn't very "dry", mostly because of my interests, and it did teach me many things.

A fascinating book. As an Austrian, I very much enjoyed reading this book, as I am not used to encountering history books on my own country in English. Although it was rather biased (Gordon Brook-Shepherd, the author, vehemently insisted that Austrians have no sense of national identity, something which quite a few people would object to), it was well argued, and a fascinating read into the much-unknown world of the Austrians, formerly an important nation until the First World War came along, flattened their massive empire, and left them to wallow in their own nostalgia and self-pity, having to put up being a second-rate nation after having experienced Imperial glory under the Habsburg emperors. Gordon Brook-Shepherd puts forward a balanced account of the Nazi years, delicately addressing the status of the Austrian nation at the time. Brook-Shepherd, I believe, accurately depicts the Austrians, as idyllic, ever cheerful people who are more concerned with their wine, food, and merry-making, than what goes on around them. Definitely a thumbs-up!

As an overview of Austrian history - which both the book's subtitle and description seem to promise - The Austrians resoundingly disappoints. The first thousand years, until the reign of Franz Joseph I are rushed over in a couple of pages with almost all details left out. For example, here is the entire coverage of the War of Austrian Succession: "There is no need to recount here how the young and inexperienced empress survived the onslaught on her inheritance which was now lavished by those same powers who had promised to respect it; but survive, at the end, she did, though at the heavy cost of yielding up Silesia to Frederick II of Prussia." Fortunately, beginning with the revolutionary year 1848, and even more so around the two world wars, the account becomes very detailed and interesting. The author has had first-hand experience with many of the events as an officer in Vienna's Allied Commission, and it shows throughout the text. It is nevertheless frustrating how the author skimmed over the period of Austria as a major European power and focused so much on the time when the Germans in Vienna decidedly started to play second fiddle to the Germans in Berlin. The book enjoys almost no competition in the English language and so the reader cannot be too picky. This particular reader however wishes that the author had been more honest, dropped the opening part and called his book Austria in the 20th Century.

If you are trying to develop an insight into the start of WWI then this book is very good. The writing style of the author makes it very interesting to read about the feelings at the time. Finally I have a better understanding of why Austria was instrumental in starting WWI. I thought it was because the Archduke was shot in Bosnia. I did not know why he was shot until I read this excellently researched book. I had no idea about the double dealing and intrigue the Austrian emperor was engaged in. I have been a history buff for many years and I wish that I had discovered this book several years earlier!!

Expected this book to be very dry (dates,facts) it was not the case. The historical information was well presented and flowed li!e a fiction novel! It actually made reading the history of my birth country really enjoyable! If someone is interested in how and why for instance of why WW1 happened this is a great source! Even though it is a larger eBook it is well worth the read! Highly recommend!

English-language books on the long-term history of Austria are relatively rare. Admittedly, Austria was one of the most historically interesting places in the world during the latter part of Franz Josef's reign-dozens of interesting books are available covering events and movements encompassing the intellectual flowering of Wien beginning in the late Victorian period. Giant personalities in the fields of visual art, psychology, music, philosophy, literature and theatre could seemingly be found in every coffee house in turn-of-the century Wien. But judging from the available books, outside of the ever-busy Hapsburg family, little of interest to the rest of the world seems to have taken place before the last quarter of the 19th century. This is reflected in "The Austrians", which in spite of being a 483 page book, reaches the year 1866 by page 88. I think it would be fair to think of the book as more like a 140-year odyssey with a very long introduction. Outside of the short shrift given to early Austrian history, I found this an enjoyable and informative book. Austria is unique among modern European nations in having been for centuries the spiritual center of one of Europe's largest empires, yet it is now a relatively small country of relatively little influence on the world stage-the teutonic rump left over from the mostly-voluntary dissolution of a multi-ethnic dual-monarchy. Given this relatively short period in which to develop a sense of unique national identity, Brook-Shepherd attempts to show in his book how seminal events in Austrian history are either influential on today's sense of nationhood (however strong that may be), or are least illustrative of typical characteristics of Austrian culture or character. This is a difficult task, and I think the author is only partially successful. Still, it is a noble attempt, and although it sometimes feels as if the author is straining to make an obscure point about Austrian nationhood, in general, this doesn't really interfere with the book. The author has spent significant time in post-war Austria and has a number of interesting contacts both within what is left of the Hapsburg family and within the Austrian political sphere. He certainly cannot be blamed for taking use of these journalistic and personal contacts in substantiating his history, and unlike some reviewers, I did not feel that this was excessive-it did not distract from the flow of the book for me at all. I cannot say this about the excessive use of footnotes, which I found extremely distracting. Overall, I found this an enjoyable and informative book. In spite of some flaws, it is the best single-volume English-language source I've found on what is unfortunately, something of an obscure subject. I find it to be complementary to Andrew Wheatcroft's "The Hapsburgs." It takes a very different approach and they two books have relatively minimal overlap.

Austria is my favorite country due to it's history and this book does not disappoint. Although it does skimp a bit in the early years, the detail contained about period from the reign of Franz Josef to the modern day is astounding and extremely interesting. A worthwhile purchase for any lover of history.

This item came within the stated delivery time, in great condition as well. Very happy with this purchase.

Uneasily approaching this after a weekend in Innsbruck - a wonderful city, which turned me into an Austriaphile - it turned out to be anything but the dry, dusty tone I had feared. Enthralling and very easy to read.

Interesting account especially for those who know little of Austrian history

Magnificent magnum opus of a fascinating period in history. Very interesting to have an insight into the humanity of kings, emperors and politicians of the time. Such detailed research is truly staggering

Excellent value, promptly delivered. A very interesting read!