Danubia by Simon Winder

As I wind down my exploration of the 19th century I've had the Austro-Hungarian Empire on my checklist of topics to cover off.  I started off reading another book on the same topic but gave up after 100 pages of exceedingly boring writing.  Then I stumbled on this gem by Simon Winder.

The topic is exceedingly complicated.  As I've read before about the Holy Roman Empire (which spanned 1,000 years from 800 AD to 1806 AD.  I needed a refresher.  I couldn't even remember the exact difference between the Habsburg Empire and the Holy Roman Empire.  I'm now reminded that the former is an extended family that held the throne of the latter almost exclusively from the 15th century to 1806.  At that point Habsburg rule was limited primarily to Austria and Hungary until it's complete demise in World War I.

I won't try to retell the story, which is about as Byzantine as Byzantium.  The Habsburg held together under one rule a motley assortment of nations - often not even contiguously bounded - for centuries.  Their polyglot peoples were bought and sold, traded and embattled for centuries.  During a century that saw the rise of nationalism and the unification of Germany and Italy, the Habsburg lands represented much of the "left over" micro territories of peoples that wouldn't, or couldn't unify.

The brilliance of this book, however, is Winder.  His approach to history marries historical erudition with a heavy dose of travel writing.  He details personal narratives of countless sites and museums, often well off of the beaten path.  This personal sojourn through Central Europe adds a signficant amount of clarity, depth and perspective that you don't find in typical histories.  He injects many stories of his family vacations throughout the region that are funny, human and relatable.  More historians should adopt this approach, rather than impersonal, academic narratives.

He also strongly recommended The Bachelors by Adalbert Stifter, on which I shall report next.