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The Fall of the Dynasties: The Collapse of the Old Order, 1905-1922 (1963)

by Edmond Taylor

Other authors: See the other authors section.

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361570,506 (3.96)4
"Popular history of the finest sort . . . an excellent book worthy to rank with Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August and Alan Moorehead's Gallipoli." --The New York Times On June 28, 1914, in the dusty Balkan town of Sarajevo, an assassin fired two shots. In the next five minutes, as the stout middle-aged Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Habsburg, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife bled to death, a dynasty--and with it, a whole way of life--began to topple. In the ages before World War I, four dynasties--the Habsburg, Hohenzollern, Ottoman, and Romanov--dominated much of civilization. Outwardly different, they were at bottom somewhat alike: opulent, grandiose, suffocating in tradition, ostentatiously gilded on the surface and rotting at the core. Worse still, they were tragically out of step with the forces shaping the modern world. The Fall of the Dynasties covers the period from 1905 to 1922, when these four ruling houses crumbled and fell, destroying old alliances and obliterating old boundaries. World War I was precipitated by their decay and their splintered baroque rubble proved to be a treacherous base for the new nations that emerged from the war. "All convulsions of the last half-century," Taylor writes, "stem back to Sarajevo: the two World Wars, the Bolshevik revolution, the rise and fall of Hitler, and the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East. Millions upon millions of deaths can be traced to one or another of these upheavals; all of us who survive have been scarred at least emotionally by them." In this classic volume, Taylor traces the origins of the dynasties whose collapse brought the old order crashing down and the events leading to their astonishingly swift downfall. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.… (more)
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» See also 4 mentions

Showing 5 of 5
I was a bit put-off by the author's penchant for snappy write-offs of each character. But he does convey the chaos of chance and incompetence that consistently moved Europe in the worst possible direction. Very much written with the benefit of hindsight. Now superceded by Christopher Clark's Sleepwalkers. ( )
  HenrySt123 | Jul 19, 2021 |
773. The Fall of the Dynasties: The Collapse of the Old Order 1905-1922, by Edmond Taylor (read 14 June 1964) An account of the ending of royal houses in Europe in the first part of the 20th century. ( )
  Schmerguls | Jul 26, 2013 |
Taylor is an excellent historian (although he is another male author with a veritable harem of females doing the actual work), with his multi-lingual background in diplomatic European journalism compassing and explaining (1) the collapse of the dynasties which ruled Europe and (2) the outbreak of World War I. ( )
1 vote keylawk | Jul 27, 2007 |
One of the best books I've read on the causes and results of the first world war. It gives this war the importance I believe it should have in having shaped the world we live in now. A very readable book with perspectives and details I have not encountered in other books. ( )
1 vote aajay | Jul 3, 2007 |
This book looks at four major empires / dynasties that collapsed in the early twentieth century. The Romanovs, Hohenzollerns and Hapsburgs lost their empires in World War I; the Ottomans only lasted another five years. This is not the say that Taylor argues that the war caused the collapse; merely that the war exacerbated condtions that were already present. Like the shot that killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, the war was not the cause but merely a trigger. ( )
1 vote AlexTheHunn | Apr 4, 2006 |
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Edmond Taylorprimary authorall editionscalculated
Gunther, JohnEditorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

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One of the last known photographs of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Habsburg, heir to the throne of his uncle, the octogenarian Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria-Hungary, shows him coming down the steps of the city hall in Sarajevo a few minutes after eleven down the steps of the city hall in Sarajevo a few minutes after eleven on the morning of Sunday, June 28, 1914.
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"Popular history of the finest sort . . . an excellent book worthy to rank with Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August and Alan Moorehead's Gallipoli." --The New York Times On June 28, 1914, in the dusty Balkan town of Sarajevo, an assassin fired two shots. In the next five minutes, as the stout middle-aged Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Habsburg, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife bled to death, a dynasty--and with it, a whole way of life--began to topple. In the ages before World War I, four dynasties--the Habsburg, Hohenzollern, Ottoman, and Romanov--dominated much of civilization. Outwardly different, they were at bottom somewhat alike: opulent, grandiose, suffocating in tradition, ostentatiously gilded on the surface and rotting at the core. Worse still, they were tragically out of step with the forces shaping the modern world. The Fall of the Dynasties covers the period from 1905 to 1922, when these four ruling houses crumbled and fell, destroying old alliances and obliterating old boundaries. World War I was precipitated by their decay and their splintered baroque rubble proved to be a treacherous base for the new nations that emerged from the war. "All convulsions of the last half-century," Taylor writes, "stem back to Sarajevo: the two World Wars, the Bolshevik revolution, the rise and fall of Hitler, and the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East. Millions upon millions of deaths can be traced to one or another of these upheavals; all of us who survive have been scarred at least emotionally by them." In this classic volume, Taylor traces the origins of the dynasties whose collapse brought the old order crashing down and the events leading to their astonishingly swift downfall. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

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