{"product_id":"twilight-of-the-habsburgs-the-life-and-times-of-emperor-francis-joseph-9780802115607","title":"Twilight of the Habsburgs: The Life and Times of Emperor Francis Joseph","description":"\u003cp\u003eNo ruler in modern times reigned in full sovereignty for as long as Francis Joseph emperor of Austria and king of Hungary  Bohemia  Dalmatia  Croatia  and Slavonia. Titular master of central Europe from 1848 until 1916  he was center stage in Europe throughout the dramatic era in which Italy and Germany emerged as united nation states. His personal decisions were vital both to the outcome of the Crimean War and to the onset of World War l  sixty years later. Although he was an autocrat who believed ill the Habsburg dynastic mission to provide eleven distinct nationalities with a cohesive unity  he was also a family man of simple tastes; and in his old age he was revered in his Austrian heartland  much as Queen Victoria was within her empire. Francis Joseph suffered a succession of personal disasters: his brother  Maximilian  was executed by Mexican republicans; his only son  Rudolf  shot himself and his mistress at Mayerling; his empress-queen Elizabeth  died from stab wounds in Geneva; his nephew and heir  Francis Ferdinand  was assassinated at Sarajevo. These episodes are examined anew by Alan Palmer in a biography of revelation  reassessment  and restoration. Too often the emperor is represented as a lonely  humorless bureaucrat  lacking in human warmth  artistic sensitivity  or political perception. Alan Palmer believes that this is a false impression. From a reading of hundreds of the emperors letters  as well as his mothers diaries and other papers in the Vienna archives  Alan Palmer presents a more rounded and sympathetic portrait of Francis Joseph as the head of an empire and the head of a family. He has also used Elizabeths curious verse journal  only recently made public  and the extensive writings of the controversial Crown Prince Rudolf in a reappraisal of the conflicting emotions that troubled the oldest of dynasties at a time of immense social  cultural  and political change for European society. Finally  Alan Palmer examines the durability of the Francis Joseph legend and its manifestation in republican Austria today.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45646992998453,"sku":"ByrdShop_0802115608","price":33.89,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780802115607.jpg?v=1781684677","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/twilight-of-the-habsburgs-the-life-and-times-of-emperor-francis-joseph-9780802115607","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}