Good book 186

Even though I'm German and history interests me, I did not know much about the Habsburgs before reading this book. One reason for not choosing a German book was my hope to find a text that was neither populist nor intended for an audience of experts. (In addition, you can refresh my French.) I was looking for a text that describes the international context and not trying to present privacy of any family member. In my opinion, the promise is kept. The book is well balanced and the author manages to compress the essence of 700 years in less than 400 pages. While the book is not for people who completely ignore the history of Europe - this would have been an impossible task - but it definitely is not a particularly dense history book.

If there is a reason why I did not give five stars is because the author and reader have been quite negligent with foreign words. On the first pages we find several times' Innsbruck 'or' Innsbruk ', so that even in German, the city wrote Innsbruck' no 'ü'. There are many other examples. The plural of 'Landsknecht' is not 'Lanzknechten'. The Austrian region is called 'Vorarlberg'. There is no reason for 'Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel' (AllTM .: 'Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel'). The baron called 'von Trenck' and Marshal 'Khevenhüller'. 'Vormauer' is female (although I prefer to be 'Bollwerk' is the Latin 'antemurale Christianitatis'). Spanish and probably Hungarian are also concerned. The 'comuneros' Spanish des'communeros become' and the Duke of Abrantes is quoted "Vengo has despadirme ...".