Product Description

The consequences of defeat were momentous: the Ottomans lost half their European territories and began the long decline which led to the final collapse of the Empire, and the Hapsburgs turned their attention from France and the Rhine frontier to the rich pickings of the Balkans. The hot September day that witnesses the last great trial of strength between Cross and Crescent opened an epoch in European history that lasted until the cataclysm of the First World War in 1914.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #41368 in Books
• Published on: 2007-02-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Review
'Worthy of the pen of a Thucydides or a Herodotus ... it is a measure of the fascination of Mr Stoye's subject that one should think of comparing his treatment of it with the work of the greatest historians.' - Times Literary Supplement 'fine historical work ... well worth reading' - Otto von Habsburg, Catholic Herald 'the master of every aspect of his subject' - C.V. Wedgewood, Daily Telegraph

About the Author
John Stoye taught Modern History at Magdalen College, Oxford, until 1984. After retirement he and his wife remained in North Oxford within easy reach of the University libraries. Now in his 90th year, he still vividly remembers walking around the streets of Vienna long ago, trying to grasp the topographical details of the famous siege about which he planned to write a book.

Customer Reviews

Thorough, but a bit dry.
A somewhat dry but thorough narrative history of the second siege of Vienna. The work was originally written in the early sixties, and lacks many of the qualities that people look for in more modern works of popular history. Although it is very thorough when it describes the political and diplomatic events of the seige, there is little here for a social or a military historian. There is no discussion of the general way of life, of the personal experiences of small people, or of the weaponry or tactics of the day. Similarly, there is no discussion of the economic factors that helped lead up to the conflict, or were affected by the conflict. Nor are the events put into the long-term history of centuries of conflict of the Ottoman and Austrian empires, nor the context of the development of Islam in Europe. Nor is there a description of the cultural impact of the seige on further generations of eastern Europeans.

These criticisms may be unfair. For a historian of the early sixties, John Stoye writes a good thorough narrative account, and teases out the facts of what really happened when with judicious skill. This is what historians of his era generally did. To ask for more, is to ask for a book written later, which would look at more. If you are reading any other books related to the seige of Vienna, then this is probably a very good book to get, as it will explain, carefully and readably, the sequence of events: a need that more modern historians sometimes overlook in their attempts to be very clever or insightful. It is a bit dry however, by modern standards.

Very good political anlysis
This is a good analysis of the political background of the second siege of vienna by the Muslim forces in 1663-4.

The book provides a breath of information about the different key players involved but very little militar information and the actual siege is hardly covered.

The book will disappoint readers who are looking to find information similar to the siege of Malta and will delight those who are keen on geo-politics in the second half of the XVII century.

3 stars

Coffee and Croissants with Kara Mustafa
In the 2009 Austrian History Yearbook, Maureen Healy writes that, "Any historian looking back to the events of 1683 and the stories that have since accumulated about Austria `saving the occident' encounters a multi-century work in progress, a story under revision, a tale in which `legends' about coffee and croissants persist alongside themes more properly in the domain of history: class tensions, national conflict, and church-state relations." John Stoye's work is certainly one of history rather than of legends, but one that is perhaps now dated, for none of the three important themes mentioned by Maureen Healy is given wide coverage; rather, it is the military and diplomatic aspects that are the centre of focus.

This is a review of the third 2006 edition of a work that was originally published in 1964. The volume includes the prefaces to the original and the second edition of 2000, and it is difficult to see where the changes have been made for this new version, save that the book is physically smaller in size. It has the same series of fourteen black and white plates (shame none of the city museum's paintings of the event in colour are reproduced) plus seven maps and plans as the previous edition, and there is the same helpful list of principal actors in the drama. There has been no update of the bibliographical note at the book's end. What continues to be missing, though, is a guide to the pronunciation of names (both persons and places), and to the modern names of towns and cities. (For instance, there is no indication that Pressburg is now Bratislava, or that Gyor is Raab in German.)

In the 1964 preface, the author wrote that "no complete account has ever been published in English" of the siege. "The total literature on the subject, of many periods and in many languages, is overwhelming in extent; I can only say that I have eagerly laid hands on what I could find, and on what I could read." In the 2000 preface, he recalls "vividly walking round and round the famous city ... trying to understand the complexities of an event ... which had earlier caught my imagination in Oxford libraries."

There are nine chapters, the first of which sets the scene for the march of the Turks and their allies to the edge of the Habsburg lands. Here Transylvanians, Wallachians, and Hungarians rub shoulders with Tartars, Egyptians, and Mesopotamians. Stoye reviews Ottoman politics, whose special character he sees as the cause of the assault: "... military considerations ... hardly determined the Grand Vezir's policy"; rather, it was "the character and constitution of the Ottoman empire ..."

Chapter two reviews the court of Leopold I, the Hofburg's defences and those of the city. References by the author to plate VI are a little confusing: it might have been better for him to have drawn his own plan. Nevertheless, good use is made of contemporary scenes to illustrate the state of the city and its defences. In the third chapter, Stoye widens his view to encompass the Habsburgs' strategic situation vis-à-vis the German states and the French threat.

The panic induced in the Viennese by the advance of the Turks is described in chapter four, as precious time is lost, the army is outwitted, and the emperor heads west. The siege itself does not commence until we are almost halfway through the book, in chapter five: "With the total encirclement of Vienna, the Turks were jubilant. They already spoke of a `final victory' ..." Military events in the wider area are covered in chapter six, whilst diplomatic efforts in Warsaw, Dresden, Berlin, and Regensburg are the focus of chapter seven.

The siege almost succeeded, but Stoye's narrative explains how the relieving armies managed to wipe the Turks off the map of Vienna in just a few hours. According to Stoye, Kara Mustafa's "fundamental miscalculation was the span of time and the amount of effort needed to capture Vienna itself. He underestimated the tenacity of the defence." The final chapter looks at the consequences of the victory with the Habsburg allies bickering within days, but their armies pushing eastwards into Hungary. Success, "led to a new militancy in the east, which step by step altered the overall balance of Habsburg policy. For this reason the year 1683 was an epoch in the history of Europe."

Stoye's narrative style is factual and no-nonsense, addressing some of the myths that have arisen from the siege and its lifting. He makes no attempt to hype the event, but neither does he downplay its importance. He concentrates in great detail on both the tactical and strategic levels, and on the military and the diplomatic positions, without ever losing the reader's interest.

The book could have done with some modern colour photographs showing the true relative height of the Kahlenberg above Vienna. Those who visit the city and want to revisit the sites of major events in the siege should definitely get the U4 underground to Heiligenstadt and then the 38A bus up to the Kahlenberg and then walk onto the Leopoldsberg.