The Crossroads of Civilization

A History of Vienna

By: Angus Robertson

Narrated by: Julian Elfer

A rich and illuminating history of the world capital that has transformed art, culture, and politics.

Vienna is unique amongst world capitals in its consistent international importance over the centuries. From the ascent of the Habsburgs as Europe's leading dynasty to the Congress of Vienna, which reordered Europe in the wake of Napoleon's downfall, to bridge-building summits during the Cold War, Vienna has been the scene of key moments in world history.

Scores of pivotal figures were influenced by their time in Vienna, including: Empress Maria Theresa, Count Metternich, Bertha von Suttner, Theodore Herzl, Gustav Mahler, Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, John F. Kennedy, and many others. In a city of great composers, artists, and thinkers, it is here that both the most positive and destructive ideas of recent history have developed.

From its time as the capital of an imperial superpower, through war, dissolution, dictatorship to democracy Vienna has reinvented itself and its relevance to the rest of the world.

©2022 Angus Robertson (P)2023 Tantor

A History of (the people who ruled from) Vienna

I'm always curious if the publisher or writer bears more of the blame in these situations, where a book's title and/or subtitle brazenly misleads. Vienna and most of the Viennese are very much background noise, about as three-dimensional as a stage backdrop. As a brief history of the Habsburgs, with a couple of hours of post-empire Austria tacked on at the end, it's neither great nor terrible. I'd give it a 2.5 if possible. But as others have noted, it's very much not the book it purports to be.

excellent

good all around production. loved the end tour guide. word word word word word word.