Austria Books

Considered to be the latest authoritative biography of Mozart having reviewed all past biographies of the composer.

I found this book unreadable and extremely boring. It was so dense with meaningless detail that the narrative flow virtually ceased - the endless inclusion of irrelevant detail sucked the life right out of the book for me. After a while I began skimming the pages in an effort to escape the onslaught of useless details. Although this book claimed to be a biography about a life, the writing style itself lacked life. I have read several books by Ron Chernow who also writes biographies and Chernow proves that you can be scholarly without sacrificing readability.

The title of my review encapsulates how I feel about this book. While honesty compells me to report that I have not completed reading this book, I have finished Edmund Morris's biography "Beethoven, the Universal Composer," and that book owes a lot to Solomon's book. Solomon goes into much greater detail and in fact expounds on psychological themes and possible motivations for Ludwig. He also delves deeply into the alcoholism that permeated his father's family, including Ludwig's grandmother on his father's side, and his father who often berated him and beat him. I truly feel a kinship with Ludwig as it pertains to the alcoholism in the family...truly, it did not stop Beethoven from becoming the greatest composer the world has ever known. If you truly want a detailed, focused, fascinating account of the composer and the man, attain this book. You will not be sorry. Has a greater piece of music other then Beethoven's 9th symphony, with the "Ode to Joy" chorus ever been written? I think not.

Thousands of books have been written about Beethoven, but this is the DEFINITIVE biography. Readers interested in the man behind the music will find a wealth of information and those with a deep understanding of his music will appreciate the chapters devoted to works composed during each phase of Beethoven's life. Finally, if you have ever heard of the Heiligenstadt Testament or the Immortal Beloved and would like to learn more, the chapters devoted to these subjects are the best. And no, the Immortal Beloved was NOT who the movie with Gary Oldman would have us believe.

Not really a biography, more a lengthy attempt to psychoanalyze the composer. Surprisingly little about his actual life. BUT such things as a whole chapter about Solomon's guess (all "Beethoven Scholars" have one) as to the identity of the Immortal Beloved, to whom Beethoven wrote (but may not have mailed) an ardent love letter -- then no real attempt to make this supposed relationship relevant to the man's life and work. More fuzzy stuff about Beethoven's attempt to become guardian of his nephew. Spare me.

If this is the "definative biography of Beethoven," lord help us.

I'm surprised so many rated this book so highly. As I was reading, I kept asking myself why Henig included so many petty descriptions of Mendel, especially regarding his size: "widening face", "despite his girth", "rotund fellow like Mendel", "his fellow brethren might have been surprised to hear Mendel admit that there was something more important to him than eating", and when Henig calls Mendel "thick-fingered" I looked at the book's cover, and the hand-surgeon in me noticed--normal-sized fingers.

So why does Henig take so many cheap shots, in what's supposed to be a scholarly biography? I've seen plenty of pictures of Mendel, and his size is not conspicuous. Why the constant comments? Why the extensive discussions about the food in the monastery kitchen? And why go on and on about his health difficulties, far in excess of what would be required in a biography? Is there any reason for her almost snide remarks?

But then she did something that made her motives, if not agenda, obvious. On Page 41 she writes a single paragraph that can only be described as outright anti-Catholic bigotry:

" . . . Galileo Galilei, an Italian mathematics professor and devout Catholic (FALSE), faced excommunication (FALSE) for defending those same ideas (i.e., Copernicanism). (FALSE) Official doctrine had changed by then (FALSE) . . . but Galileo . . . refused to renounce his radical ideas (FALSE) . . .

Clearly, Henig is no historian:

1. Galileo was NOT a devout Catholic--he had a mistress who bore him 3 illegitimate children
2. Galileo did not face excommunication, and if Henig had done her homework, she would have known that excommunication was not an option given his crime BECAUSE-->
3. Galileo was NOT brought before the Inquisition for advocating Copernicanism. The Pope had told him NUMEROUS times that the Church did not think Copernicanism was heretical, and that Copernicanism was NOT the issue. The issue was Galileo's insistence that the Church change its interpretation of Scripture to conform to Galileo's REINTERPRETATIONS (at least one of which was wrong), which he had based on Copernicanism. The issue was Galileo's (erroneous) foray into Scriptural re-interpretation, not his astronomy.
4. The Church never took an "official" position on Copernicanism, so it was never an issue of "doctrine", and if Henig had read any reputable historian (Catholic/Protestant/Secular/whatever) she would have known that. (And, no John Paul II did NOT apologize for it in 1992).
5. Of course Galileo renounced his radical ideas. Every junior high school student in America knows he ABJURED--that's why he got house arrest--in his own villa outside Florence. (And no, it was not because he was afraid he'd be tortured--Inquisition rules forbid torture in someone Galileo's age, and he knew that).

One last one: Henig writes: "But natural scientists, if they are intellectually honest, often find themselves taking heretical positions on matters of creation and procreation, positions that challenge the very underpinnings of the Catholic Church." What dishonest nonsense. Here's a (very) brief list of internationally known historians who disagree with Henig: Lindberg, Numbers, Ferngren, Hedley Brooke, Shea, Rowland, Artigas (none of whom, to my knowledge, are Catholics themselves).

I agree with the previous reviewer(s) who mentioned Henig's obvious lack of accuracy when it comes to Christianity, but these errors are so glaring that either she is the most ignorant historian I've read in years, or she's an outright anti-Catholic/Christian bigot.

In either case, these biases/errors/inaccuracies make the book a waste of time. Not that it's not entertaining in parts, but if she can put so many errors/distortions into a single paragraph, the rest of the book is not to be trusted, on any level.

I have spent 10 years teaching high school biology, and as such a person, I have a reverence for poor Mendel strugling in his garden.

This book gave me insights into his work, and the work of those who followed, and thus gave me new insight into how to communicate the humanity of these surprised giants to my students; possible giants of the future.

Henig admittedly takes creative license to fill in some historical gaps, but she goes too far in propagating the misconception that Mendel sent a copy of his paper to Charles Darwin and that Darwin never read it. This urban legend (also brought up by other authors, such as Philip Kitcher) has made its way into newspaper articles and even textbooks. Catalogs of Darwin's library in the early 1900's and later made no mention of Mendel's paper. Instead, a secondary source by Focke that mentioned Mendel was in Darwin's library, with the relevant pages uncut. See Andrew Sclater's 2003 article in the Georgia Journal of Science.

This book is a wonderful historical account of how
Gregor Mendel, the father of modern genetics, came
about to describe the units of heredity.

The story is not only of one monk's personal struggle
to be recognized as a notable and respected scientist
and teacher, but also one of other scientists'
motivations (selfish and unselfish) for scientific
excellence and recognition.

Mendel had to overcome many social and political
challenges along the way to his discovery. Even after
his death, others fought difficult battles for him in
order for Mendel's thoughts to be accepted as the truth,
and to have Mendel himself recognized for his awesome
achievement. The man was truly a genius.

The author does an incredible job compiling the
information available on Mendel, as well as building a
timeline and social environment that allows the reader
to feel as if he/she were truly in the time of Mendel.
This was a thoroughly enjoyable read.

Now the warts...

1. I was a bit disappointed in not getting a more clear
discussion of the concepts Mendel was working with.
The fact that Mendel started out with a clear plan
of attack and then systematically developed a model
that later led to his theory well after he made his
observations was simply posed as a question of whether
he had foresight to do the experiments. It really doesn't
matter, but the answer is obviously yes. He knew what he
was doing. His scientific inquiry and application of
mathematical concepts to the study of heredity was
revolutionary, yet overlooked. He was not ahead of his
time, but rather his peers (and many scientists today)
were (and are) not thinking in Mendel's mathematical terms.
Others were preoccupied with the physical world, but
Mendel was only concerned with the mathematical.
Try to describe the law of gravity to someone and you
will get a nod of understanding as you drop an apple
to the ground. But, try to describe the same using a
mathematical equation...and you will get a blank look,
I guarantee it...just try it for yourself.

2. It seems as if the writer was working with a pencil
(or word processor) in one hand and a thesaurus in the
other. There are so many obscure vocabulary words that
it disrupts the flow of thought. This is just great if
you would like to use the book for teaching high school
students, which may actually be the intent - note the
reference to the author's teenage daughter - but is
very distracting to most other people. In addition, the
flow of thought is interrupted by many long parenthetical
discussions. Sometimes, you just lose sight of the topic.
If you put the book down in mid-chapter, be prepared to
re-read the whole chapter again. I ended up skimming the
entire book several times after reading through the first
time, so I was sure I was getting the whole story.

If you want to use the book as a study guide for the
vocabulary portion of the S.A.T., scrabble championship,
or for jeopardy, you may want to look up the definitions
of words from this short list beforehand:

acerbic
acumen
apogee
apostatic
banal
cacophony
chafed
churlish
comported
dioecious
ecclesiastical
erstwhile
exegesis
heretical
ignominy
imperious
macabre
marshalled
misanthrope
paean
parson
pedagogy
polemic
prescient
propitious
quixotic
rubric
slake
sojourn
stolidity
talisman
tweedy
vituperative
waggish

3. There are some obvious mistakes (typographical or
otherwise) that a geneticist would see immediately, but
may be confusing for someone trying to learn genetics
and reading this book. For example, on page 90, there is
a discussion of dominance that had me scratching my head,
and I have Ph.D. in molecular genetics! Also, on page
240, line 8, replace the word "phenotype" with "genotype"
and you will understand the authors point.

4. Skip the epilogue. Why pontificate about what might be
if Mendel had not done his gardening? Would we be better off
without atomic warheads? What about antibiotics? Hmmm....
Wait...the book is about something entirely different.

The Monk In The Garden by, Robin Marantz Henig, is a good book surrounded by a more boring, speculative one. At the core of this "novel," of course, was the explanation of the life and times of Gregor Mendel that helped procure his work on genetics. However, concealing this was much fluff, and unnecessary banter from Henig. The story of the monk growing his peas is a familiar one, to any person having passed a high school biology class, yet the purpose of this novel was to delve further into the unknown to see a side that we have never previously seen. While at times, Henig creates lighthearted descriptions of his rotund body, or widening face, for the most part she generalizes and presupposes that Mendel spent his time looking at objects out windows. For having lived so very long ago, it is amazing someone has been able to so accurately describe their daily life, and without ever meeting them as well? Now if she could only do the same for the many other illusive historical figures.

After reading some reviews, I too picked up on a certain religious bias held by Henig. She seemingly had two agendas in writing this book, both uncovering Mendel's life and work, and discrediting Christianity at any point possible.

While trying to be entertaining, Henig still uses excessively large vocabulary at points, and seems to be mixed up, and frazzled when it comes to her explaining important concepts. Still eagerly trying to explain genetics, Mendel, and how Christianity is wrong, she seems to forget that not everyone reading this book has a PhD in molecular biology. Henig seems to have failed as both a geneticist, and a novelist. Harsh, yet someone publishing a nonfiction book should be 110% sure everything is both correct, and at least factual based on primary resources, not made up chitchat. Plus its just plain boring.

This is a great high-level roadmap of Germany, but it lacks the detail needed to really explore the countryside. If you are driving through Germany like we did, buy an atlas that provides more route detail. There are so many country lanes in Germany that even a detail book sometimes misses the many villages you'll encounter along the way. If you're taking the train, this map works fine. If you're driving, look at something else.

I got this thinking it would get me started on planning my trip to Europe. I had a list of things I wanted to see. When I got the map I was so happy to see that all the tourist attractions were ALREADY MARKED on the map! They were clearly labeled and easy to locate and read. Great product...well worth the money!

This was the very first travel book - my mother in law bought it for me right after we were stationed in Germany 6 years ago. I'm still using the 2001 version (yes, I know that's bad!) but it's gotten me all over! The simplified maps and the hotel recommendations have kept my trips easy and fun.
--Vicki Landes, author of "Europe For The Senses - A Photographic Journal"

First and foremost, to clarify, this product that you are supposedly reading reviews for is Rick Steves' MAP of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It appears that the other reviews are of Rick Steves' guidebooks! Again, this product is NOT one of Rick Steves' famous guidebooks (which I would always rate as 5 stars, incidentally!). This map is very basic; don't count on using it to find your way around a country or city. Only the major cities and towns are marked. Likewise, in the city maps of Berlin, Munich, Salzburg and Vienna, only the major thoroughfares are mapped. You should use this map only as a reference to his guidebook of the region to plan your trip. You will want to get a 'real' map that's much more detailed, e.g. Michelin, when you arrive. Best part of this map? The cool water resistant paper on which it is printed. Especially if you have small children who are apt to spill liquid, as mine did on Day One upon receiving it from Amazon!

Before I moved to Germany from the States I received this book from a friend of my mother's who had spent a few years attending university in Spain and said that Rick Steve's books were what everyone at the university used. Since moving to Germany this book has been great. I carry it around with me whenever we travel because it has so much valuable information.

Some of the other reviews have been extremely negative, but as someone who uses the book on a regular basis and actually lives in the country, I know that this book is great. It is less expensive than others and it gives great suggestions for places to stay. He does spend more time with Berlin and Munich, but considering these are two of the largest cities that have long histories, it only makes sense. The hotel suggestions are great, the last time we were in Berlin we opted to choose our own place that was less expensive. It was neat with all the Bears around (it was called the Bearliner), but it smelled. So, if you plan on travelling to Germany I really suggest getting this book.

I got to look at the book at a bookstore before I bought it so I knew I wasn't getting a biography. This book is a look at his theorem with comments about his life thrown in to put the work into some human context. For a thurough description of the theorem with a gentle human touch this is the book for you. Casti et al. does a great job of making tough ideas readable. If you want to know more about the theorem that turned mathematics on its head this is it. Not perfect (less talk about cake :-) ) but fun, readable, educational, A shame it is out of print.

Sorry, but this book was somewhat a disappointment for me. The authors for the most part keep personal life and work of Gödel separated, instead of seeing them as a unity. A biography has to be the best of both worlds in my opinion. That's what makes the work of a biographical writer a difficult task. Maybe one of the two authors did the biographical part, the other one the mathematical ? And of course, everything about Gödel is great, brillant and alltogether grand. I am missing a critical view on his lifestyle and his view on music e.g.. Appearently the author of the biographical part was so in awe of Gödel, that he didn't dare to critisize anything about Gödel. Ironic, since Gödel stands for the idea, that you are allowed and even have the obligation to question everything to get to the bottom of the truth of things.
I am still waiting for the real biography of Kurt Gödel.

The main result of Godel's Completeness Theorem is that in arithmetic, there are true statements that can never be proven to be true in the system of arithmetic. Using this as a base system, this means that in any system equal to or greater than arithmetic in complexity, there will be true statements that cannot be proven to be true in the system. This result has been used by many people to argue for or against many things.
I have seen it used to argue for the existence of God.

"According to Godel's theorem, there are things that are true that cannot be proven to be true within the system of human thought. God is one such thing, therefore God exists."

I have seen it used to argue against the possibility of artificial intelligence (AI).

"According to Godel's theorem, there are things that are true that cannot be proven to be true within the system of programmable human thought. Humans take advantage of these unprovable truths, which makes intelligence. Since this advantage can never be programmed, AI is impossible."

I have suggested on more than one occasion that the people making these arguments need to spend more time studying both logic and what Gödel really concluded. For example, they could read this book.
It presents a brief biography of Kurt Gödel. In his later years he was quite eccentric and reclusive, however in his early years he apparently was quite a ladies man. Certainly Gödel was a genius; Albert Einstein himself openly expressed his admiration for Godel's intelligence. I was pleased to see the authors spend as much time as they did describing Gödel in his earlier years. So many other commentators spend so much time on his social difficulties that his achievements become overshadowed.
A complete explanation of his main results is also expressed in terminology that almost everyone can understand. There are few formulas; simple algebra is all that is needed to understand all of the mathematical symbolism used in the book. If I was teaching a course in popular mathematics, it would have to include Godel's Completeness Theorem and this is the book I would select for that section.

I would agree with other reviewers who point out that Casti and DePauli's book really doesn't work as a biography. While there are some interesting biographical factoids, they are offered in such a disjoint manner that it is hard to see this book as a good biography of Kurt Godel.

However, as a book that gives an accessible overview of Godel's work, it is very effective. The best parts of the book deal with Godel's Theorem and Turing's Halting Problem. While there are other books out there that do a good job of making both those topics accessible to a wide audience, Casti and DePauli's treatment is worth a read because they also offer some unique insights not (easily) found elsewhere.

But the best part of this book is the second to the last chapter that gives an accessible account of Algorithmic Information Theory (aka 'Kolmogorov Complexity') ... especially Gregory Chaitin's work on the randomness of natural numbers. While Chaitin has also written some accessible works on this topic, Casti and DePauli does a great job of explaining this topic to a wider audience as well as showing the connections between AIT and Godel/Turing. This chapter alone is worth the price of the book.

A very interesting and insightful thing that Casti and DePauli did was to periodically re-define Godel's Theorem in terms of Turing's Halting Problem, Chaitin's work, and from other interesting angles.

The book is not without fault. Besides the rather haphazard biographical details, the chapters dealing with some of Godel's other projects (physics, mysticism, etc.) were rather poorly written. Also, Casti and DePauli did a very bad job with citations/suggestions for further reading. E.g., they often cite to other works, or suggest readers consult other sources for further details, and then do NOT provide those sources in the bibliography. There are some other examples of sloppy editing and writing that would be hard to point out to those who haven't actually read the book.

Having said all of that, the book deserves 5 stars because of the material on the incompleteness of mathematics, solvability/computability, random nature of mathematics, and some of the biographical trivia (to the extent that they are offered). My recommendation is that people buy the paperback if they are interested in AIT, mathematical logic, and theoretical computer science, and want those topics dealt with in an accessible and interesting manner without sacrificing on insights.

Author shows a great skill in Chapter Two and Three to explain a crux of famous theorem in a very succinct language without using mathematical terms. Also a short biography of Godel's strange life explains: why he died of paranoia; why he hated Austria; why he was suffering a guilt of not producing enough academic result in Princeton.
As the author acknowledges, many metaphors used in this book overlaps with the Douglas Hofstadter's Pulitzer-winning book. However, as many other books for past twenty years, the author presents a theorem in a way that is easily misinterpreted. In p11, he says "Essentially, what Godel showed is that no kind of mathematics is ever going to be comprehensive enough to express fully the everyday notion of truth." And then, the author spends a great deal of pages on AI and computer.
As far as I know, Godel's theorem mentions nothing about "truth in daily life" or computer. Godel's theorem applies only in a strictly circumscribed sphere, i.e., first-order logic. For example, Euclidean geometry is not imcomplete, and the higher-order logic doesn't produce Russel-type paradox. So, what we cannot speak of we must pass over in silence.
Also, author asserts in p71 that Wittgenstein's shift to "sociocultural position" later in his life, but he failed to mention that Wittgenstein did describe his thought about Godel's theorem in his "Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics".

Reading Schorske is like riding a time machine to Vienna around the tumultuous late 1800s to 1900. He covers an electic array of topics. However, he has a central focus: to show the radical changes and interconnection between arts & politics at the turn of the century vienna (fin de siecle). But, be warned, Schorske is an intellectual historian, and though his exposition is easy to read, his themes are academic and copiously detailed.

Schorske first lays out the setting of a growing city. He describes the monumental architectural project of the Ringstrasse (the Ring Street around central Vienna) and the rising liberalism and shifting wealth this represented.

The more interesting, and key, episode of the book involves the reactions to this change in Austria, in the form of new politics, anti-semitism, Zionism, and of the ramifications in Arts, Sciences and Music. Specifically, Schorske writes about transformations of viennese politicians, medical doctor Sigmund Freud, artist Gustav Klimt, and musician Arnold Shoenberg. The "vignettes" of these figures are academic and marvelously entertaining. What's surprising is how closely these key figures in 20th century intellectual development were connected; Vienna was a small city, after all. As I said, you'll feel like you're walking through the bustling streets of Vienna, and spotting Freud or Mahler (though Schoerske doesn't cover Mahler) on a leisurely stroll.

This is simply a phenomenal book. Schorske jumpstarted an interest in fin-de-siecle Vienna in the 1960's and opened the door for a plethora of scholars to build upon his work. Schorske's ideas are nothing short of brilliant and profound.

Granted, this is a tough read. The language is difficult, often verbiose. But never unnecessarily so. The subject matter is intrinsically complex and Schorske's diction only mirrors that.

One need not be a specialist to read this, though perhaps a good level of intelligence and fortitude to make it through some very complex ideas. It is a book to be read and re-read, at various intervals in life, particularly after a visit to Vienna where Schorske's words really come to life.

I lived in Vienna for two years, and in fact wrote my Masters thesis on the Viennese identity crisis at the fin-de-siecle. Schorske's book is one I can always go back to and still get something out of. It is ever-challenging and ever-fascinating.

If you are interested in a particular spin to traditional theories on Viennese modernity, read Jacques LeRider's "Modernity and Identity Crisis," whose thesis is that turn-of-the-century Vienna forshadowed postmodernism. LeRider takes Schorske up several notches, and therefore the two books are good to read one after another.

This book in not for everyone, but at the same time I feel it does not exclude either. If you've come across this review with no particular interest in Viennese modernity or intellectual history, I urge you to try this book anyway. It is rich enough to enrapture even the mildly curious mind.

read this book to fall asleep, actaully no, read the chapter on Freud's interpretation of dreams and then fall asleep. in the morning interpret your dreams! a load of mind numbingly boring, non-sesical drivel!

We are drawn to Vienna at the beginning of the 20th century because of Adolf Hitler, as much as or more than by its own curious modes of art, music, architecture, science, literature, city design and medicine. What a strange brew it was!

Cultural historian Schorske has nothing to say about science or medicine or Hitler, and little enough about the setting of his chosen few subjects, despite the word "politics" in the subtitle. The Germans and German Jews of Wien were a small fraction of the population, which was a small fraction of the German-speaking population of the empire, which was in turn a small fraction of the emperor's subjects, who were overwhelmingly Slavs, Hungarians, Romanians. Possibly Schorske could assume his readers would understand that part of the background. It is not so clear that, today, many people understand the makeup of the multinational empire.

To me, the most interesting section of "Fin-de-Siecle Vienna" was the longest chapter, on the building of the Ringstrasse. This effort, permitted but not managed by the sovereign, was, he says, a more complete rebuilding of a capital even than the contemporary work in Paris, done at the behest of an emperor.

In Vienna, the briefly ascendant and confident liberal bourgeoisie did it.

Pause a moment. Schorske uses the word "liberal" without explanation or caveat, but German liberals of Austria were different from other liberals in that they did not embrace the national principle. Schorske mentions this without discussing it, but it is a question whether the Vienna bourgeoisie and its few aristocratic allies can properly be called liberals at all.

In any event, it seems likely that the decay of their political power, leading to the crisis of confidence at the end of the century, was largely caused by the fact that they were not, in fact, liberals. (If they really had been liberals, their power might have decayed even sooner, but that is another issue.)

Schorske attributes all to a failure to continue to believe in progress, history and community; and thus a reaction toward psychology, individualism running to narcissism and despair. Antisemitism rears its ugly head, but Schorske treats it almost as background noise. Soon enough, it would drown out everything.

He examines writers like Hofmannsthal and Schindler, Freud, painters like Kokoscha and Klimt, one composer (Schoenberg) and a host of characters who will be unfamiliar to English readers, like Saar.

It is almost too pat that the Viennese cultural mafia chose a few themes (such as the garden) that Schorske is able to use as threads to weave a remarkably dense, almost impermeable cloth.

Yet the themes seem valid.

Occasionally Schorske descends (or ascends: he is clearly in soaring mode in these episodes) into high-falutin' gobbledygook of the kind all too common in cultural criticism. This goes with the territory, I suppose. (He is also capable, more than once, of astoundingly wrong obiter dicta: "The European mind lost its capacity to project satisfying utopias." This is exactly backwards; Europe was rushing to fall on antisemitic and nationalistic and ideological utopias. What Europe had lost was its capacity to be practical.)

More damaging to the overall persuasiveness of his analysis is his uncritical Freudianism. "Fin-de-Siecle Vienna" was published in 1961 and could hardly have been written even a few years later. Schorske explicitly says that in writing about the various thought-modes of his subjects he is keeping his historian's distance and not embracing any of them. He obviously tries to do this in the chapter about Freud, but later in the book he falls into an (unconscious?) easy Freudianism, chatting blithely about a whole class of men suffering from castration anxiety and similar imaginary maladies.

Ah ,well, the unconscious mind is the universal solvent for the uncritical critic: On the slenderest of evidence, he can attribute motives and causes to his subjects that, by definition, they did not even know about themselves; and assign to them any symbolism and significance he cares to. Schorske is fairly restrained about this with his earlier figures, but with Kokoscha and Schoenberg, anything goes.

In comparison with some other mid-206th century muggers of historiography, Schorske is a mere hubcap-stealer. Still, his brush with psychoanalysis seriously debilitates an otherwise interesting book.

How does an historian, whose job it is to interpret the past, come to terms with a cultural movement built upon the concept of modernity rejoicing in the death of history? This is exactly the question posed by Carl E. Schorske in his book Fin-De-Siecle Vienna Politics and Culture. In a series of essays, which the author admits are not meant to be interlaced, Schorske examines Vienna's cultural reaction to both the decline of Liberalism and the end of the Habsburg Empire. The task of merging politics and culture is not an easy undertaking and the faint-hearted reader should beware. "Just as a knowledge of the critical methods of modern science is necessary for interpreting that science historically," writes Schorske, "so a knowledge of the kinds of analysis practiced by modern humanists is necessary for coming to grips with the makers of twentieth-century non scientific knowledge" (p. xxi). Yet this brand of historical analysis is not that simple as Schorske goes on to explain. It appears, still more separates the historian from the humanist. According to Schorske, a dual approach is required when attempting to analyze cultural history. This binary-method is analogous, he argues, to a vertical and diagonal line. In the "diachronic" or vertical line, the historian more or less places the cultural in its historical context. In the "synchronic" or horizontal line, he or she looks at the relationship of the particular element of culture studied with what else is going on in the world of art, music, literature, and architecture. In a useful analogy, the author believes "The diachronic thread is the warp, the synchronic one is the woof in the fabric of cultural history. The historian is the weaver, but the quality of his cloth depends on the strength and color of the thread" (p. xxii). But what does this all mean? The essays that follow, though providing an enjoyable read, raise some doubts about Schorske's conclusions. The strength lies in the author's ability to place the culture of late nineteenth century Vienna in its historical context. In the opening "Politics and Psyche: Schnitz and Hofmannsthal," Schorske successfully ties the other essays together by introducing the two strands of Austrian fin-de-siecle culture:moralistic-scientific and the aesthetic. A conventional historian may feel more at home with the former, however, the aesthetic aspect is more difficult for many of us, to borrow a trite cliche, to carve in stone. Arguing functionality versus aesthetically appealing, or the placing of ancient Greek statuary on the steps of the Parliament building because Vienna had no past, therefore, it had no political heroes of its own to memorialize in sculpture, needless to say is unconvincing. Since Schorske cites no government documents, to back up his claims of Liberal motives and intentions in urban modernization, for example, his analysis of the connection between politics and culture borders on pure conjecture. The Freudian injection, resulting in the weakest essay of the book should have been omitted. Aside from the above-mentioned flaws, the book is interesting. Schorske's possesses a clear literary style, that helps the reader survive this graduate level sleeper. The addition of color plates, an anachronism in today's budgeted publishing industry was a welcome sight indeed. Yet, one wonders if such abstract concepts as modernity and aesthetics ought to be left to those more qualified outside the historical profession. Such studies, as art criticism itself, surely leave room for varying interpretations that open the doors for open debate.

I recommend this enlightening and fun narrative of Korda's trip to Budapest as a great starting point in learning about the attempted revolution. While it surely lacks detailed information on policy and Cold War era geopolitical relations, it gives a great sense of what it was like to actually be there. Reading it makes me jealous of Korda's bold trip to a historical event like this. Buy this book for anyone, particularly an adventursome older child, or any reader who enjoys history. It is too bad that European history in the U.S. is taught only about England and France mainly. The Eastern countries have a history that's just as rich and more interesting. However I didn't even know about the revolution until I visited Budapest, and in college I still have to really seek out information on Hungary. This is the type of book that if more people read could break that unfairness and get more students to understand this increasingly important and beautiful country's past.

I'm going to start off bluntly by saying...not my cup of tea. But I must admit, Michael Korda's Journey to a Revolution was definitely intelligently written. The language and style of the book was certainly a challenge for me (hint: I don't really read). It's very smart and the character has a good sense of humor considering what is going on around him. This novel truly takes the reader on a journey from beginning to end. Basically, in a nut shell, the book goes over the history of Hungary, a small country that has gone through a whole lot to reach the freedom it has reached today. Korda gives us great insight to events before, during and after the 1956 Revolution. The 1956 Revolution was a huge milestone for Hungary in the sense that it showed the great courage of the Hungarians not only fighting for their country but fighting alone. And even though a happy ending came years from then, this revolution helped bring down a power that thought it could take over the world. Using elaborate details, the reader learns about what a Hungarian really is, their pride and courage, and every detail about Hungary's fight for freedom.
Best of all, the author, also the main character, was a true eye witness. He really did go on this journey to Hungary and described the events as seen by his owns eyes. He lived and breathed the events he speaks about while he was in Hungary in the time where the freedom fighters had thought they had won the revolution. Who better to tell a tale then a person who lives to tell? He describes scenes such as dead bodies hanging from poles and smells such as burned fleshed and gasoline. It leaves no room for sugar coating; just straight forward to what is being witnessed. Korda, in the novel, was a privileged young man, who gathers a couple of friends and some much needed items and road trips to Hungary. He has a couple of scares on the way dealing with situations that could've gotten them killed. But he is very intelligent and finds his way out of trouble. For example, they made a stop for gas in a bad neighborhood and basically find themselves in a bar like restaurant with a pretty mean crowd. Knowing that they might get jumped if they mention anything about money, the narrator trades liquor for gas and heads out on his continued journey to their destination.
Aside from that, the novel is well researched and very matter-of-fact. Also, we learn about some events that were happening elsewhere that kept the world's eyes off what was going on in the streets of Hungary. It was even mentioned that these events were on purpose and the Russians took advantage of that, pulling the rug from under the Hungarian's feet. The book is just full of history that not many people take into account. Though I usually don't read books of this genre, I give major credit to the author for giving a plate of history with a side of wit.

After a bunch of titles published by refugees in the sixties, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was largely ignored. Michener's Bridge at Andau remains the most passionate yet journalistic account of the revolt.
Now with the 50th anniversary just past interest is returning. Korda's book reviews not only the historical and political basis for the revolt of the Hungarians against the Soviet Union, but includes his personal involvement. After reading so many of the memories of those days, including those in a fine oral history archive at Columbia University, I can just imagine Korda driving into town with the farmers supplying food to the freedom fighters. Soul of Flesh: A Novel of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution

It was an event of the magnitude of what occurred more than thirty years later in China in Tiananmen Square. But in 1956 there were no 24 hour cable news networks. There is precious little footage of what took place in Budapest in late October of 1956. It is safe to say however that the events that took place there during those 12 days would have a profound effect on the future of the Soviet Union. Author Michael Korda, then a 24 year old undergraduate at Oxford and a descendant of a prominent Hungarian family, journeyed to Budapest at the height of the revolution to bring much needed medical supplies and to experience first-hand what was happening in the streets of the capital city. "Journey to A Revolution" is Michael Korda's personal memoir of those dozen amazing days. It is at the same time an overview of Hungarian history and of the events that would ultimately lead an unlikely coalition of students, intellectuals and factory workers to attempt the unthinkable. For a precious few days it appeared for all the world that the revolution had succeeded. And while the Soviet Union would move quickly to crush the revolution and restore a hard-line Communist regime the damage had been done. The Soviet Union was no longer viewed by its client states as invincible and within just three short decades it would collapse of its own weight. The Soviets won this battle but would ultimately lose the war.
While I did enjoy learning more about the specifics of the Hungarian revolution I must agree with Publishers Weekly who found Michael Korda's account of these events as "strangely flat". I am also concerned about the comments of a number of other reviewers who seem to have found numerous factual errors in this book. While "Journey To A Revolution" is not an awful book it is certainly not something I would recommend to others. It would appear to me that if you are seeking a much more thorough and well researched account of these momentous events then you might opt for Victor Sebestyen's 2006 offering "Twelve Days: The Story of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution".

Uneven in coverage, but certainly readable and better written than I expected from a brief personal account- cum- history of (mostly) recent Hungary. Korda's own distinguished family background and his own military training as an interpreter in Russian as the Cold War heated up enriches his descriptions of how shells pass through an apartment, why bistros got their start, how a Molotov cocktail is shaken and stirred, why hussars were the rage in 19c armies, and how the autobahn petrol stations were spaced to match the tank capacity of a VW! And, more apropos, how Napoleon III redesigned wide straight Parisian avenues-- soon to be copied in other cities by European monarchies-- to aim artillery at restive crowds trying to revolt.

If you thrive on such details, often tangential but intriguingly selected, Korda's style will please you. Despite its errors, which did surprise me even as a "curious bystander." I add to those compiled two more: speakers of Finno-Ugric tongues do not converse in "the only non-Indo-European languages in Europe" (34). Basque survives from pre-IE times, unrelated to any other surviving language group. The letter Dr Hajnal wrote attesting to the delivery of the medical supplies has three instances in which a "silent correction" has been given to its transcription on p. 136 opposite the original note's reproduction. Inexplicably, the date is November 3rd on the note; the text has them arrive in Budapest on October 30-- the same day when they brought the medicine then to the doctor. No postdating of the letter is mentioned. No other time is given for a return visit to the hospital after the 30th, and certainly on November 3rd although it was the last day of the interim calm between the two battles Korda says nothing about a hospital visit or an encounter with the doctor. How primary evidence clashes with the narrative makes me wonder at who edited this.

He's stronger on his ability to fit the 1956 uprising into the Suez crisis, the position of the UN, and post-1956 events that led to the eventual melting of the Cold War. I wish he had explained more the colliding aims of the revolt by the workers, the students & intellectuals, and the army. It's now accepted that the revolt was for a gentler socialism (how far under a Communist ideology is not detailed by Korda) rather than a capitalist democracy. Korda rushes by these issues.

If you seek a dramatic personal tale of hairbreadth escapes and hilarious conversations under fire, you will only find Attila the prof discussing with Korda the merits of Waugh vs. Greene, admittedly while under bombing! The British students arrive after the first fight that gained control of the city by the rebels. They hide for their lives, understandably, during the counter-attack beginning November 4th, later making it to the British embassy for safety. There is inevitably a sense of Korda as a lagging witness to the actual revolution. Not to blame him, for he tells us what he knows. But he gets his story in the lull, the flash of time in which the Hungarians proclaimed their independent republic, in between the fights with the Soviets. As he begins his book, however, he reminds us that historical events are more easily understood when seen in the rear mirror rather than when they loom ahead and you're in the driver's seat!

Perhaps he could never be more than an indirect participant, which is unfortunate even if accurate, given Korda's British identification and his lack of any Hungarian, not to mention how he was suspected by both sides by his sudden arrival. You will encounter instead about 90 pages of background on Hungarian topics, three chapters about what Korda and his companions witnessed within what we later know about the revolt, and a closing chapter quickly summarizing the aftermath.

Korda reminds us this was the first revolt where so many of the world's journalists were able to document it and send out their pictures. He also points out how later these same photos in the Western press would be scrutinized as the "traitors" were hunted down by the vengeful Soviets and their collaborators. This made me wonder how the papers were gathered by spies and fellow-travellers, and sent back somehow to military intelligence within the communist Kadar regime. Another story that needs telling?

I did like how photos were interspersed rather than gathered into the middle of the book. Stalin's statue pictured with only its boots remaining on the plinth, a Hungarian flag across the massive stumps, sums up well the whole revolution. Twice, for instance, we see the people described in the text: blonde fighter Kati, and the dashing Borsalino-wearing guerrilla with the wooden leg.

This book came out around the same time as Victor Sebestyén's "Twelve Days" historical narrative, and a new study of how Moscow, London, and Washington connived and fumbled in Charles Gati's "Failed Illusions." Korda has skimpy endnotes and barely any printed sources credited. These lengthier studies presumably will enrich what Korda intriguingly only alludes to: the debate over the true messages sent by Radio Free Europe, the British encouragement of the revolt to distract Russia from the Suez Canal, and the postwar role of Hungarian Communists who had fled to Moscow vs. those who had stayed behind under fascism. Korda implies that the superpowers manipulated the hopes of the freedom fighters and the repression of Moscow both, but more detail, even in such a short account, would have helped clarify these vexing issues.

I have many maps from visiting Italy and have ordered some that were similar from the hotel lobbies, but this one is excellent compared to those. It shows all the little side canals and even has the canal where my future hotel is, which based on trip advisor comments, alot of travelers had a hard time locating. I am happy with this map - streetwise Venice; as well as streetwise Rome.

It's a pathetic small map of Venice.
Only room for main island, even that much to small.
No information at all.
If you want good map of Venice, buy the Borch.

On a recent visit to Venice I used the Streetwise Venice map. Though I found the plastic coating beneficial during a rain shower, the map was of limited value. Because of its size, street names were often illegible. The northern part of the city was cut off from the map and therefore gave me no help in exploring that part of the city where so many of the locals live. Far better to pick up one of the free maps given out by the tourist office, or available in almost all of the hotels.

This is a somewhat pricey item considering it's only a map, but a laminated map is a valuable resource when your lost in that splendid maze of Venice. It's a good size and very easy to use.

My husband and I found this map to be extremely helpful, in large part because of the clear identification of the monuments. It's worth the money to have it for the first day or two until you get your bearings.

Hermann Maier's story is inspiring. He tells us all just what it might take to be a world champion. No one has had the same mountians to climb to stand on the top.

A must read

This book gave me insight into the competitive world of ski racing and I found it very informative. Maier's comeback from his horrible accident is indeed inspiring, but I found the book way too long and detailed to keep my interest from waning. I finished it, but it was tedious. A good editor and a little more flair could have made this a great book.

Herman's book can be subtitled "Don't count me down and out just yet...." And this is the recurring theme throughout.

Perhaps it's the translation into English, but the Herminator comes across as not only a great athlete, but a little too self-centered! It's as everything revolves around his being and return to winning, no make that crushing his competitors and not just the race hill. You can almost "see and hear" the snorting, growling, grimacing in the start gate as you read this book - yet you don't really get a true feeling of what all this means to him other than competition, endorsements, and being the all conquering focus for the Austrians - not even his team mates. But somewhat like Bode Miller, Maier came from "outside" the alpine racing mainstream and perhaps that's why he appears to remain somewhat outside the norm.

I read Bode's book at the same time and in the end, you sure know which guy you want to sit and have a beer with or ski a run with.

I have always been a fan of Hermann Maier - not many have the ability to bounce back like he can. I bought the book for my son who is just learning to ski and he really enjoyed the biography. It is a good against all odds story and I would encourage anyone looking for a gift for an aspiring skier to send them a copy.

We have learned that Hermann has a talent for skiing but the guy can write too. The book also teaches good sportsmanship and I want my son to grow up respecting his team mates and have a good attitude. Being a good sport is not just about big sponsors.

We really enjoyed watching him ski and win medals at the Olympics!! And we really enjoyed his book!

I thought that Hermann Maier wrote a very candid and authentic book about his victories and struggles in the world of expert skiing...a help to the layman and an inspiration to the professionals about not giving up and how to reach for those goals/dreams!

This book is a realistic perspective of a true hero and athlete and it's a great read for young and old!

I enjoyed it very much and I applaud Hermann for his perspective on life and on skiing.

As a regular reader of biographies (just finished a wonderful book on Talleyrand), was really disappointed. Found it to be tedious and disjointed - written like a college thesis, trying to impress the reader with as many facts thrown into a sentence as possible. Even though I plan a trip to Central Europe in the Fall, and am really interested in its history, I could not finish this book. Have currently ordered the John Van Der Kiste book on Franz Joseph and dearly hope it's better than this one.

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.

Not just a well written history, it truely the story of a very large and powerful family.

Prior to reading this book, my knowledge of Emperor Franz Josef was mostly limited to his involvement in World War I: a staunch leader committed to preserving the Old Order whose government ultimately turned the Sarejevo crisis into an international one.

Palmer's book "The Twilight of the Habsburgs: The Life and Times of Emperor Franz Josef" changed my perspective on the Austrian monarch not by painting him as a exceptional or clever leader, which he wasn't; but simply by portraying Franz Josef as a dutiful leader whose reign and personal life was frequently marred by tragedy. Indeed, Franz Josef was keen on his empire's defeat at war at the hands of the French, Italians, and Prussians. As a result, it seems likely he never would have dragged Austria-Hungary into the Great War if it were not for the influence wielded by various ministers on the then-84 year-old emperor. Throughout his life, he was abandoned by a vacationing wife whose life was cut short by an Italian anarchists, his son committed suicide in a mysterious pact, his brother was executed after a failed bid to rule Mexico, and his nephew's assassination in Sarejevo was the saprk that ignited World War I. Indeed, the reader will find out that Franz Josef's personal life was far from a royal fairytale.

Besides the enormous tragedies experienced by Emperor Franz Josef, the changing times surrounding the Emperor's long reign (1848-1916) are nothing short of an exciting setting that may be difficult for us to fathom in the 21st century. At the dawn of Franz Josef's reign, the cavalryman was still prominent on the battlefield, Germany and Italy were mostly collections of squabbling states on his northern and southern border, and the flight of man was limited to a pipe dream. However, by the end of his career, Franz Josef lived in a world where war took to the air and a unified Germany was one of the premeir powers in the world.

The book's only flaw is perhaps more of an annoyance than a serious misgiving: Palmer translates the names of his German subjects to English, hence the reader will constantly see "Francis Joseph" instead of "Franz Josef." Perhaps he did this to appeal to wider audience, but I do beleive that anyone willing to pick up a book on an Austrian emperor is knowledgeable enough to contemplate German names.

Overall, this is an excellent book for those interested in European monarchs, the 1850-1918 time period, or a good biography.

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.

In many of his books, Lukacs sets out to write a multi-disciplinary history (drawing on economics, psychology, sociology, and political theory) of a narrowly circumscribed subject during a relatively thin slice of time (e.g., "Five Days in London, May 1940" and "June 1941: Hitler and Stalin"). Here, the object of Lukacs' rather idiosyncratic approach to history is the city of Budapest around 1900, which, according to Lukacs, was the city's zenith as a cultural and commercial center of (Eastern) Europe. Unlike reading many of Lukacs' books, however, reading BUDAPEST 1900 is tough going. Lukacs does make an impressive case for the significance of Budapest and its many notable literary, artistic, and intellectual figures around the turn of the century, but he burdens that case with page after page of tedious chamber-of-commerce data: miles of railroad track, water consumption per capita, number of mailboxes, number of gymnasiums, theater seats per capita, etc., etc. Further, it is not readily apparent which pages or paragraphs to skip. To get to the wheat, one must necessarily sift through a lot of chaff.

I read this book as background and in preparation for reading some of the works of Gyula Krudy, and I looked forward to it because over the years I had enjoyed a number (at least six) other books by Lukacs. But this is not as well-written nor as intrinsically interesting as were the other books of his that I read, and the prickly and grandiloquent (an adjective that is used far too often in the book) side of Lukacs is a little too evident. Despite numerous informative and insightful passages, I had to force myself to stick with this book to the end, and having reached the end I am not sure it was worth the effort.

History doesn't have to be a boring list of facts - look at Norman Davies's Europe: A History for evidence of that. But Lukac's Budapest 1900 is an example of what can go wrong when the historian attempts to write like a novelist.

Many parts of Budapest 1900, a potrait of the city at the turn of the century, are bogged down in long descriptive passages which try to impart a mood. In Budapest's heyday around 1900 sun lights up the beautiful women shopping in the boutiques on Vaci Street. Later, during the short-lived Communist government after World War I, politicians scheme in badly-lit basement rooms.

This kind of impressionistic history becomes irritating, and detracts from otherwise interesting detail about a city which was once the fastest growing in the world. There are also sizeable footnotes on almost every page, which seem unecessary in a non-academic history like Budapest 1900.

Furthermore, Lukacs employs a flowery style, which also grates. There are lots of unecessary self-references to "this historian" and tortured sentences like the following: "Seeds of trouble is the title i gave to this chapter: but semination is one thing, and fructification another."

The book also fails to draw all of the chapters together in a thematic whole. Finishing the book is unsatisfactory - You have very little sense of what it was really about, beyond a trip down memory lane.

This is another book that deserves to be put back into print. Throughout a long and productive career, John Lukacs has taken pride (sometimes bordering on preening) in his penchant for defining things his own way. Sometimes it works, sometimes it just a distraction. But no subject is better suited to his mix of talents than this "historical portrait" (as he puts it) of this the capital of his native country.

The book is a nostalgia trip in part, but it is a good deal more. Lukacs also undertakes to to situate Budapest in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and in particular, in contrast to its great partner, Vienna -- it's remarkable even today how these two cities, so close together on the map can seem so far apart.

But perhaps the best part of the book is in his chapter on "Seeds of Trouble," when he undertakes to show how liberal nationalism went sour and headed down the road to anti-semitism and the destructive hyper-nationalism that wracked us all through so much of the 20th century. Liberal nationalism had always contained the seeds of its own undoing. Discerning politicians as disparate as Disraeli, Bismark and Napoleon III had already grasped how the liberal impulse could be harnessed to conservative ends. But through Lukacs' eyes, you can see just how quick and subtle -- and disastrous -- the shift can be. Probably the point is that Lukacs was never a good liberal to begin with. So he can look on with unblinkered eyes as the liberal vision crumbles in his hands.

For all of Lukacs' aristocratic disdain, it is possible for a reader less austere than the author to see this shift as a disaster. Perhaps a good pairing for this book would be Gordon A. Craig's "Triumph of Liberalism" about Zurich in a slightly earlier time: there you can be reminded (if you need reminding) of just how refreshing the rise of liberalism could be.

Lukacs has a final chapter called "Since Then," but it's perfunctory. There's certainly a story to be told about 20th Century Budapest, but you wouldn't come here to find it. On the other hand, as an exercise in archaeology -- of the substrate that underlies our more recent battles -- this book is hard to beat.

Lukacs attempts to capture the mental climate of Budapest 1900. This is a kind of impressionistic approach to history that uses scholarship to achieve its effects. He is definitely worth reading.

Reading this book took me on a trip to an age when things were golden. I was able to see places I have been and picture myself in those times. The christian-jewish relationships were a model that can be likened-to today's America. I enjoyed the section about the coffeehouse district and also the author's footnotes. I learned a lot of things I did not know about political sides and issues.

Anyone thinking of buying this book will be pleased with their purchase. I have read "An Undiplomatic Diary", by an american General after WWI. I would like to read about Emperor Karl 1st, the "Peace Emperor". This combination of books bring about a rounded history. I am sure that there are other books to read, but these are pretty good places to start.

The last chapter tied everything together and was very strong.
Bravo! Is there another chapter about the last 14 years or so?