Product Description

Wilhelm von Habsburg wore the uniform of an Austrian officer, the court regalia of a Habsburg archduke, the simple suit of a Parisian exile, the decorations of the Order of the Golden Fleece and, every so often, a dress. He spoke the Italian of his archduke 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. Timothy Snyder's masterful biography is not only a reconstruction of the life of this extraordinary man - a man who remained loyal to his Ukrainian dreams even after the country's dissolution in 1921 - but also charts the final collapse of the ancient regime in Europe and the rise of a new world order.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #159994 in Books
• Published on: 2009-06-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Publishing News
`a welcome new slant on 20th century history'

Literary Review
'The Red Prince adds an absorbing chapter to the story of the Hasburgs in their last days of empire'

Daily Telegraph
'As a vivid portrait of a vanished world the book is superb, being both prodigiously researched and elegantly written'

Customer Reviews

A very different kind of biography - an immensely political one
If you have never heard about this Archduke Wilhelm do not get worried. He is indeed just a small fish in the big pond of European history from WWI to WWII. But he is an excellent to tool to demonstrate the developments in the Austrian Empire and the whole of Europe, especially with focusing on Eastern Europe.

Timothy Snyder is a respected scholar of this period of time and area of Europe. The reader is suddenly focused on the developments in Poland and Ukraine and there position in the European concert. Very interesting indeed. He tries to show how members of the Habsburg family tried to come to terms with the development of the time and to find a new role in this changing environment for themselves. Archduke Wilhelm serves as a pars pro toto and seeing him developing into an Ukrainian is interesting while the other parts of his family turn themselves into Polish citizens. However, as interesting and unique that seems to be the author seems to forget that the Habsburg have done that for centuries (even when nationality and nationalistic views were less important). The Palatin Branch of the family in Hongary or the Tuscany Branch or the Modena Branch might serve as examples. Important to note is as well that turning into one or the other nationality is combined with the "Habsburg arrogance" of becoming leaders of these nations. Here democratic elements are totally forgotten and maybe that one simply does not want as a new nation as a new leader the junior members of the old ruling family which is regarded as the former oppressors.

Wilhelm has this treak of arrogance. He does not come across as a very constistent personality, rather spoiled and very often looking were his own advantages is. He changes position and views far to often and can not regarded as a personality of real integrity. The only constant feature is that he wants to be important and the leader of a newly emerging state as if through being a Habsburg that is his right. Well, he was proved wrong. How he dealt with the Habsburg Family, especially the Empress Zita and Archduke Otto does not make a very nice read.

Strange I actaully found that all Archuke etc are called NN of Habsburg. Habsburg was the family name but they all were Archudkes of Austria, Royal Princes of Bohemia and Hongray etc. They never called them "von Habsburg". When the Austrian Republic came they were simple "Habsburg"; only Otto as a German citizien and in his professional life was called Otto von Habsburg.

All in all, it is a highly interesting book to read in political terms and explains much of the last century. Indeed worth a read, not easy, not really entertaining, but immensely enriching.

Almost excellent.
This is almost excellent. It's about a period of European history that is largely misunderstood or forgotten, and the tag line about the Rise Of Modern Europe is spot on. There's much to recommend both the author's in depth knowledge of the time and also using this little known Habsburg as the vehicle to tell the story.

But there are flaws. The author has that annoying (often American - try reading the New Yorker without wincing) habit of slipping in what are obviously clever little word plays that come across as utterly pretentious and distracting. What's wrong with clear English?

Secondly, although this chap is the vehicle for the story, he gets bogged down with trying to choose between sticking with the narrative of the prince himself, the period or the Habsburg family. I can imagine that planning it all was a nightmare, but often he falls between two stools. You find that he's either lost the narrative drive on occasion, or can even end up repeating himself.

Lastly, he finishes with a section on modern Ukraine that seems to try too hard, bridging the gap between history, biography and journalism. I found this end chapter far below the excellent standard of the rest of the book.

These are minor flaws in a very nearly excellent book. It's a book that anyone interested in why Europe is like it is ought to read.

amazing tales
This really is a most extraordinary story. If you have ever read any of Michael Moorcock`s Pyat novels (Byzantium Endures, The Laughter of Carthage etc.) you will know the territory, except that this time the story is true. William is equally at home in the Court of Austria-Hungary, the battlefields of Ukraine in the Russian Civil War and the gossip columns of 30s Paris. His final end, in a KGB jail, is both tragic and bathetic. This biography cries out to be filmed, except that the only director who could do it justice was the late Luchino Visconti.