1.This book assertsthat the Habsburgs consciously created and manipulated their own families mythology to a degreeunseen in Europe. This is greatly misleading for it forgets (unbelievably) the other great mythologymaking machines around at the time (the Medici's in Florence, the Bourbons in France and so on).2.Though the Habsburgs did manipulate their image via various means it cannot be stated with thecertainty with which Wheatcroft does that it was a conscious family project from the days of RudolfI (1218-1291). Certainly it preoccupied his later descendents but Rudoplf and his immediate progenywere simply behaving in a pattern familiar to most rulers of the time.3. I must also stress thatthe book is not an easy read, mostly due to the fact that the author jumps around the historictimeline and throws in a few dozen Hapsburg names (some with no numbers attached which can be reallyconfusing seeing as the Habsburgs shared names profusely) to confuse things even more. I alsodisliked the references made to figures of whom we know nothing about and who the author saysnothing about. Oh and this is not a history of the rulers themselves but rather a book on howthe Habsburgs manipulated their image down the centuries. Do not buy it if you want to find outabout individual rulers achievements, acts etc. Very little of that can be found in this book.
From the traditional historical point of view-that inwhich history is the chronology recounting of war and changes in power-nothing of significancereally happened in Austria that wasn't somehow associated with the Habsburgs. Whether or not thisis the case is the subject of a different book-the subject of this one is the Habsburg familyitself. Although their presence lasted longer in Austria than anywhere else, this powerful familyalso ruled the Netherlands, and Spain, and often provided the figurehead for the Holy RomanEmpire.
Probably to an extent greater than any other royal house, the Habsburgs had their greatestsuccesses not on the battlefield, but in the bedroom. They married their way to what at one pointwas the largest empire in the world, encompassing not only the majority of the German-speakinglands, but also the Lowlands, the Iberian peninsula, and the Spanish territories in North and SouthAmerica, and Asia. Quite a feat for a dynasty that had been chased out of their hereditary home andnamesake 300 years earlier by pitchfork-wielding Swiss peasants. The Habsburg story is moreconcerned with the issues of power than it is with warfare, which often went quite badly forthem.
Given a unique and interesting subject, the author takes a somewhat non-traditionalapproach. As he explains in the preface "More and more I found that the Habsburgs expressed theirsense of missions and their objectives obliquely, through a kind of code." Wheatcroft attempts toshow how the Habsburgs manipulated symbolism and other communication mechanisms to further theirgoals and to set themselves apart as the unquestionable lords of Central Europe. I think the authoris only partially successful in this, although I found nothing in his approach that seemedunreasonable. Several of the author's explanations have been useful to me in interpreting symbolismthat can still be seen today in Austria, such as the designation "K.K" and the gilded presence ofthe Order of the Golden Fleece on statues and paintings (This was a chivalric order borrowed fromthe Burgundians when they didn't need it any longer giving the Habsburgs an opportunity to run theirown good ole boys club.)
On the negative side, I found the book difficult to read. While thesubject matter certainly lends itself to confusion, dealing with an inbred family thatunimaginatively reused the same names over and over again, sometimes with different numbers indifferent contexts for the same ruler, perhaps the author could have used a more straightforwardoutline. The book tends to spiral a bit, mixing up events taking place at different times in orderto make a point about continuity and a repeating pattern of Habsburg behavior. I finally dog-earedthe family trees appearing in the Appendix so that I could flip back to them in an attempt to keepall the cousins, nieces, and nephews straight.
This is not a traditional history. While I don'tfeel that the author necessarily builds totally plausible case for his conception of the Habsburgsas being Europe's premier power of propaganda, I do think that he offers genuine and useful insight. I question the execution more than the concept, which I think has some validity.