Although he gives the more familiar Spanish Habsburgs their due in this riveting study, Martyn Rady rightly restores the primacy of central Europe to the dynasty, which, born of modest roots in Switzerland and Swabia, became Holy Roman Emperors in 1452.

... deeply informed, elegantly written and a joy to read. It also shows the Habsburg world to have been even more bonkers than I had thought.

... [Rady] has produced a Rolls-Royce of a narrative that motors through ten centuries of history with an effortlessness that belies the intellectual horsepower beneath the bonnet.

Mr. Rady adds to a growing body of research challenging the conventional view of Habsburg rulers as 'gaolers of nations' who suppressed the vitality of the cultures they governed.

Rady has set himself the task of writing a readable account of the rise and fall of this remarkable dynasty, and his sparkling study is certainly a good place to start.

... a granular yet accessible survey of the Habsburg Empire’s central role in the transformation of Western civilization from the Middle Ages into the modern world.

... [an] ambitious overview.