Metternich
Book description
A compelling new biography that recasts the most important European statesman of the first half of the nineteenth century, famous for his alleged archconservatism, as a friend of realpolitik and reform, pursuing international peace.
Metternich has a reputation as the epitome of reactionary conservatism. Historians treat him as the archenemy…
Why read it?
2 authors picked Metternich as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
‘Game changer’ is a much-overused term for new academic books, but not in this case. Wolfram Siemann’s seminal biography of Metternich sheds a blinding array of new light on one of the most important figures of the age, and recasts forever our understanding of the politics and diplomacy of the Napoleonic period. At last, a great scholar has systematically exploited the private archives of the Metternich family, bringing new facts to bear on the key moments of the Napoleonic wars. It is simply indispensable, and HUP are to be saluted for making it available in English.
From Michael's list on Napoleon and an era that shook Europe.
Admittedly this is not a book about Napoleon but about the architect of his defeat. Siemann spent decades in European archives producing a biography that would finally supersede that written by the Nazi von Srbik in the 1920s.
He accomplishes this task brilliantly by presenting a Metternich who is much more human, complex, uncertain, and more of a ‘dove’ in terms of geopolitics than anybody had imagined. It also does a fine job in rescuing the post-1815 Metternich from the condescension of posterity showing him not to have been the vicious reactionary of Cardonaro lore. It weighs in at seven…
From Ambrogio's list on Napoleon, his rise to power, and his downfall.
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