Presents a biography of the emperor of Austria as well as a history of Europe during his reign.

The life of Emperor Francis Joseph can only be understood in close connection with the political transformation of Europe and the progressive shift in world power that went on during the century between the Congress of Vienna and the Treaty of Versailles. It is from that standpoint that it is here written. At the same time the specific content of this description is his human and political personality. On no other terms can any bounds be set or any form given to the vast mass of interconnected historical events covered by the period of Francis Joseph’s life and reign. Since, however, whether as man or ruler, he falls far short of being an embodiment of human greatness, it is in a somewhat limited sense only that he fills the conception of a historic personality. So comprehensive, on the other hand, is the range of countries and peoples over whom he reigned; so extensive is the period of his governance; so mighty and multifarious are the European issues influenced, and deeply influenced, by his action and his character, that, judged by the test of influence on great events, he must be said to have counted for more than any other European monarch of the nineteenth century. Compared with his, the singular and momentous career of Napoleon III is but an entr’acte in Europe. Guardian of an ancient line, inheritor and defender of rights that date far back into medieval times, natural foe of the modern struggle to transform Europe into a series of closed national states, Francis Joseph assumed and maintained for sixty years a position in the Europe that the war destroyed to which that of no other sovereign affords an analogue. What makes him all the more impressive is that there was in him, as in no other European monarch of the past century, a perfect correspondence between the man and his work. To Francis Joseph and to the Empire that came to an end in 1918 the saying certainly applies which is the veritable title deed of biographical history—History is made by men. Even in a period preoccupied as is our own with research into the development and function of ideas and of institutions, economic, social and political, history cannot omit personality, since it is the instrument through which the will of a nation or a state has to be exercised. Least of all can this be done where, as with Francis Joseph, the idea of the ruler overpowers that of the man and makes his personal individuality its servant.

In 1848, 28-year-old Francis Joseph became King of Hungary and Emperor of Austria. He would reign for almost 68 years, the longest of any modern European monarch. Focusing on the life of Emperor Francis Joseph and his family, this book examines their personal relationships against the turbulent background of the 19th century.

The Court in Vienna under Emperor Francis Joseph was not only Europe's most illustrious and refined, it was also a huge economic enterprise, serving as both home and workplace for just under 2,000 people. The author reveals multitudinous facets of Emperor Francis Joseph's court and displays them in highly entertaining fashion, the court truly comes alive again. She takes the reader through a typical day in the life of the emperor, from his early morning toilette to the evening ceremonies; she tells tales of glittering ceremonies, receptions and audiences; she provides insights into the private and the family life of the emperor.

Rothenberg's work offers the first analytical, full length study of the army of Francis Joseph throughout its history from 1815 to 1918.

For forty-three years, Francis I of Austria ruled a vast heterogenous Empire that came to dominate the continent of Europe. Ascending Charlemagne’s thousand-year throne of the Holy Roman Empire at the age of twenty-four on the unexpected death of his father, this scion of the ancient Habsburg dynasty became the first Emperor of Austria and for two years, the only Double Emperor in history. Both the father in law of Napoleon Bonaparte and his chief rival for dominance of the continent of Europe, Francis eventually led a coalition of nations to Paris in 1814 and sent Napoleon into exile. The exiled Napoleon’s only son and heir lived with his grandfather thereafter in Vienna until his tragic early death. Kings, ministers, generals and the glitterati of Europe gathered under his watchful eye at the Congress of Vienna to decide the fate of a continent in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars in which he played a pivotal role. The Congress saw the emergence of his new Austrian Empire as the most dominant power in continental Europe until long after his death twenty years later. A devoted husband, father and grandfather, his modest lifestyle and simple tastes that set the tone of the Biedermeier era concealed a complex and calculating ruler whose initial, cautious liberalism gradually evolved into a stoic conservatism. No other life-biography in English has been written about this mysterious but powerful figure of early 19th century Europe whom Metternich and Radetzky called their master.

The author’s masterpiece, an epic saga of a family and an empire in decline, is “full of psychological penetration and tragic force” (The New Yorker). The Radetzky March, Joseph Roth’s classic novel of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, follows three generations of the privileged von Trotta family as Europe advances inexorably toward World War I. With a breadth and richness that draws comparison to Tolstoy, it encompasses the entire social fabric of Austro-Hungarian society. Shot through with dark humor and tragic irony, The Radetzky March is an unparalleled portrait of a civilization in decline, and as such a universal story for our times. “A masterpiece . . . The totality of Joseph Roth’s work is no less than a tragédie humaine achieved in the techniques of modern fiction. No other contemporary writer, not excepting Thomas Mann, has come close to achieving the wholeness . . . that Lukács cites as our impossible aim.” —Nadine Gordimer