Austria Books

European history, as it's taught (to the extent it's taught) in American schools, generally consists of British and French history, with brief mentions of Italy in the Renaissance and Germany during the wars. Austrian history barely merits a blip, save for August 1914. It's not surprising, therefore, that 'Prince Felix zu Schwarzenberg' is -- as far as I've been able to determine -- the only English-language biography of a most interesting historical figure.

The Schwarzenbergs were one of the richest and most powerful families in the Austrian empire. Prince Felix (1800-1852), after a 'colorful' early life, buckled down and became prime minister following the revolutions of 1848. It was he who engineered the abdication of Emperor Ferdinand and his heir, Archduke Francis Charles, in favor of the latter's 18-year-old son Francis Joseph, and later helped restore the empire's authority in the wake of nationalistic uprisings. Though often denounced as a reactionary, Schwarzenberg was actually a more nuanced statesman, actually sweeping away many of the lingering remnants of feudalism and laying the foundations for the more modern (for good or ill) centralized state. It's one of history's interesting, if neglected, 'what-ifs?' to speculate on how Europe might have been different had Schwarzenberg lived another two or three decades, instead of dying of a sudden stroke at age 52.

A scion of the same family, Adolph Schwarzenberg has done an excellent job in this biography -- especially considering that he was writing at a time when government and family archives had largely been seized by the Nazi occupiers of Austria and Bohemia (where the family's ancestral home is located). The bulk of his work focuses on Prince Felix's years in power, with separate sections on domestic and foreign policy and a special emphasis on 'the German problem.' The book is detailed, but also very readable, and it opens the door to an important figure and time in European history. It's a title I was glad to get my own copy of, and one I return to often.

Rarely do you have an opportunity to meet someone who has "made a difference in history." Ambassador Per Anger is just that sort of person. Elizabeth R. Skoglund touches on the thread that held people like Per Anger, Rauol Wallenberg and others together while they tried to help those escaping the Holocaust. For us now, we too can "make a difference".

BOOK DESCRIPTION (from the dustjacket flap):

This book is the sequel to the book by the same author which was published some years earlier under the title "The World Among the Summits" and which was sold out immediately after publication. ...

It is an accomplished narrative of the harmonious beauty of our mountain world -- its heights and depths, light and shadows, sunshine and storm, mists and clear skies, summer and winter, spring and autumn. The photos are not merely superficial notes, the author's love for and his great interest in this rough rolling world give them a depth which enriches all those who take up this book with open hearts, evoking an echo in their souls.

Only a mountaineer, who has lived with the mountains in all weather, who feels their heartbeat and is familiar with all their characteristics, can take photographs which are more than superficial compositions. Such are the pictures of Jaka Cop. ... This book speaks a universal language -- no better ambassador for tourism and alpinism in this region could be imagined.

There is probably no mountaineer among us who does not know Jaka Cop, a man with an energetic stride... He has been up to Aljaz Turrent over a hundred times...and has set foot on all summits of note in the Slovene mountains, he has climbed the Dolomites and in the Central Alps, he has spent many a night in mountain huts in Austria, Switzerland and France. ...

'Paradise Below the Triglav" is the second selection of Cop's most successful photos, collected over long years of mountaineering, They reflect the author's fundamental relationship to the mountains: a lyrical experience of Nature, that of a landscape painter revealing the untouched and untouchable beauties of the mountain.

Cop's book about the Julian Alps is such that all lovers of the mountain world will take it up with delight and admiration."
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Drzavna zalozba Slovenije, Ljubljana, 1968. 218 pgs. Black & White photographs. Photo titles in English, German and Slovenian.

I picked this book up to compliment my reading a book on the Hapsburg empire. That book begins where this one left off, with the Battle of Mohacs in 1526. This book was an excellent introduction to the development of Hungary. Though the early period is murky from lack of sources, once you hit the 13th century, the story becomes detailed and rich. Since East European history is not popular in the West, I highly recommend this book. Along with the history of the Byzantine Empire, you can get a good view of the Northern Balkan and transdanubian history.

Most importantly, this was a highly readable book. Very enjoyable.

This in excellent edition on the development of the Austro-Hungarian Army before the First World war. The author's exhaustive research comes through in this thorough and almost faultless study. Highly recommmended for any historian in this field.

In conjunction with the 400th anniversary of Rembrandt's birth in 2006, Rembrandt And His Time: Masterworks From The Albertina, Vienna is the companion book to the Milwaukee Art Museum's exhibition of twenty-seven of Rembrandt's most important works, as well as drawings by Roelant Savery, David Vinckboons, Jacques de Gheyn II, Hendrick Avercamp, Jan van Goyen, and Esaias van de Velde which offer some of the earliest examples of naturalism. Works of Rembrandt's contemporaries and followers such as Jan Lievens, Nicolaes Maes, Adriaen van Ostade and more are also examined in context. Rembrandt And His Time displays black-and- white sketches and full-color artworks in their full majesty, along with a thoughtful, one-page text commentary upon each work, contemplating its origin, materials, or significance in a larger and changing school of artistic thought. A compilation of masterworks, and the next best thing to viewing the museum exhibit in person.

Those who still try to understand our recent common past will not be able to find a better and more unusual book than the "Prehistory of Post-Communism", a dark Swiftian time-travel, which criss-crosses long centuries in order to illuminate that what is just left behind us. The reader enters a labyrinth, in which the very same protagonists reappear time and time again from different perspectives, taking on different masks and roles in the course of their doomed unheroic fight for and against historic destiny. The author has borrowed from history, anthropology, sociology, and philosophy in order to write a book of unusually high and strange literary qualities. The unknown author is the late W. S. Sebald's scholarly companion: his free associations hide a conscious and strictly organized formal construct. It is a real intellectual joy to read this learned work, one of the best, and certainly one of the most unusual historical books published in the last years.

I first read this book several years ago. At the time, I was struck by the depth of passion these two artists had for life and their unfettered ability to express this inner fire. I have never been so touched by a description of what I call an artistic encounter with life as I was touched by Rilke's description of the owl brushing it's wing against the face of the Sphinx in the stillness of the night so that it reverberated through his consciousness to deepen his understanding of sound and music. Recently, a dear friend of mine took a huge artistic leap of faith and has been struggling with the fear of change this has brought. I recommended this book to her and was inspired anew as I read her my favorite passages. Anyone who knows what it feels like to be inside the artistic flow will find kindred spirits inside this book.

Presented here as fiction, the ironically titled Rough Justice focuses on an officers' prank that caused four deaths and many injuries and the subsequent miscarriage of justice as the British army successfully covered up the incident. Keith Watson captures the lives of national servicemen in the uneasy early days of the Cold War, the boredom-induced quarrels, the smells, the constant privations both large and small, and the personalities of conscripts and professional soldiers alike. We care for Lloyd, for Boozer and the others, and the young soldiers' efforts to become men at a time that was neither peace nor war are very moving. Conversations are deliberately disjointed, as the teenage soldiers switch from discussion of their dead comrades to the best way to make their kits sparkle on parade. The fire that forms the central point of the narrative is approached obliquely, through the days and months that led up to it, as if the subject to too painful to linger on for long. This is a portrait of military life stripped of all its glory. Perhaps the supreme irony is that this loss of life occurred at the end of the military exercise in which nothing was accomplished. Keith Watson, himself present at the fire, writes with passion and immediacy about his lost comrades and the subsequent events that put the reputation of the unit above justice for the dead. This book goes a long way to correct this balance.

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, lyric baritone, was born in Berlin in 1925 and was one of this most important and widely acclaimed singers in the post-war era (was drafted in 1945, captured by the Americans in Italy and spent two years as a prisoner of war). He sang a great deal of opera in a huge range styles from Classic to Romantic to Wagner to opera of the Twentieth Century such as Berg and Britten. He was able to do all of this because of his great technique, natural vocal gifts, and keen intelligence. Above all, however, Fischer-Dieskau is remembered as a great singer of Lied, especially of Schubert. He actually sang all of Schubert's more than 600 songs in recital!

It is natural that a talent and a mind with such a close affinity to Schubert would also have studied the composer's life deeply enough to write a book such as this. It is a book with grace and charm that helps us understand Schubert's life on a very personal, even intimate (emotionally) basis. The author carefully connects the music with the life without the fatal mistake of the amateur of making the music biographical. We understand what was happening in Schubert's life, what he was writing at the time, and how that music involved those around him.

The musical detail never gets too technical, but only serves to illuminate the beauty and significance of the song and helps the reader understand its musical poetry and its illumination of the text. There are no musical examples or pictures, but plenty of excerpts of the texts of the songs so they may be discussed.

There is also a wonderful immediacy to the writing. We are taken to concerts, recitals, parties, and share in Schubert's triumphs and disappointments. We learn about his love and disappointment over Theresa Grob (who married a master-baker instead - so much more practical!). We never get bored or find the writing dry or dusty (which is pretty darn good for a translation!)

The last two chapters discuss what happened after Schubert's death, his legacy, and a short look at a number of interpreters of Schubert's lieder (songs) over the past hundred and fifty years or so. Again, this is more about flavor and illuminating the songs than an academic study of who sang what when and why.

If you want to have a pleasant experience with the songs of Schubert from an intelligent man who was one of the great performers of those songs, get yourself a copy of this book. Some are available on the used market at reasonable prices.