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Rating: 
Summary: Good book with a major distraction
Review: The book is full of information about a very interesting time in history. I didn't mind the jumping around that another reviewer mentioned, but I am COMPLETELY distracted by the author's need to change the names. If you can't handle "Franz Joseph," you should try a little harder. Who is Archduke John? We are lucky he didn't change "Maria Anna" to Maryanne. Dear Author, please give your readers some credit.
Rating:
Summary: Good book with a major distraction
Review: The book is full of information about a very interesting time in history. I didn't mind the jumping around that another reviewer mentioned, but I am COMPLETELY distracted by the author's need to change the names. If you can't handle "Franz Joseph," you should try a little harder. Who is Archduke John? We are lucky he didn't change "Maria Anna" to Maryanne. Dear Author, please give your readers some credit.
Rating: 
Summary: Great book!
Review: This book is a splendid description of Franz Josefs life. Every ascpect is covered good, and you realy feel that you get a picture of the man and the emperor. I strongly recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: Once again, Alan Palmer provides a focused biography
Review: This is a very good book. The only reason that I did not give it 5 stars is due to the fact that I am waiting to read several other Palmer titles and then rank against them. My interest in Franz Joesph originated in the start of WWI and how Franz Joseph played into Austia being the main country to instigate the Great War. I was also interested to find out more about the Austrain-Hungary royalty that was famous to intermarry with other nation's royalty. Palmer answer my questions and succeeded in providing a different viewpoint of Franz Joeseph. History books portrayed him as an aged man who was interested in nothing but war and out of touch with the modernizing world. I learned this to be unfounded rhetoric. This book gave an excellent overview of Franz Joesph and his Empire and the inevitable decline and fall of his empire. If you were curious about Franz Joesph or Austrian history, this book is an excellent read.
Rating:
Summary: Gently Revisionist
Review: Twilight of the Habsburgs is a nice biography of the Emperor Francis Joseph and his times. Francis Joseph ruled the Hapsburg lands from 1848 to 1916. He is usually seen as an obtuse, stubborn old autocrat who refused to change with the times and thus doomed his empire to collapse. Alan Palmer takes a somewhat revisionist view of the Emperor, pointing out that he had a far better mind than he is normally credited with (although handicapped by a very poor education) and was willing to make reforms when necessary (of course he rarely saw the necessity on his own). Even when he did see the need to change, he often waited until it was too late. For example, in mid 1916 he talked of pulling his country out of World War I in the spring of 1917. What if he had gone ahead and made peace in the summer of 1916? Maybe a shorter war, no Russian Revolution, no American intervention, the mind reels with the implications! But unfortunately he put that decision off and died before he could implement it.The strongest portions of this book deal with Francis Joseph's personal life. I felt sorry for the poor man, dealing in turn with a bossy mother, a flighty wife he loved dearly, a son who wasted his great abilities and committed suicide, and a host of nephews and cousins who couldn't behave themselves and certainly didn't give him the support he needed. His life was full of losses, a brother executed in Mexico, his wife assassinated, his son a suicide, and finally his nephew and heir's murder bringing on a World War. At least he had one friend, an actress he visited for years in a platonic relationship. Its nice to think of him laughing with her over coffee, it must have been the only chance he had to relax! Francis Joseph was not a brilliant or especially bright, but he did his duty as he saw it and stuck to it right to the end. It is this that makes him admirable today.
Rating:
Summary: Gently Revisionist
Review: Twilight of the Habsburgs is a nice biography of the Emperor Francis Joseph and his times. Francis Joseph ruled the Hapsburg lands from 1848 to 1916. He is usually seen as an obtuse, stubborn old autocrat who refused to change with the times and thus doomed his empire to collapse. Alan Palmer takes a somewhat revisionist view of the Emperor, pointing out that he had a far better mind than he is normally credited with (although handicapped by a very poor education) and was willing to make reforms when necessary (of course he rarely saw the necessity on his own). Even when he did see the need to change, he often waited until it was too late. For example, in mid 1916 he talked of pulling his country out of World War I in the spring of 1917. What if he had gone ahead and made peace in the summer of 1916? Maybe a shorter war, no Russian Revolution, no American intervention, the mind reels with the implications! But unfortunately he put that decision off and died before he could implement it. The strongest portions of this book deal with Francis Joseph's personal life. I felt sorry for the poor man, dealing in turn with a bossy mother, a flighty wife he loved dearly, a son who wasted his great abilities and committed suicide, and a host of nephews and cousins who couldn't behave themselves and certainly didn't give him the support he needed. His life was full of losses, a brother executed in Mexico, his wife assassinated, his son a suicide, and finally his nephew and heir's murder bringing on a World War. At least he had one friend, an actress he visited for years in a platonic relationship. Its nice to think of him laughing with her over coffee, it must have been the only chance he had to relax! Francis Joseph was not a brilliant or especially bright, but he did his duty as he saw it and stuck to it right to the end. It is this that makes him admirable today.
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