In The Habsburgs, Martyn Rady tells the epic story of a dynasty and the world it built - and then lost - over nearly a millennium. The Habsburgs: The Rise and Fall of a World Power (Paperback) The story of Europe's Middle Kingdoms is a reminder of Central Europe's precariousness, of its creativity and turbulence, and of the common cultural trends that make these lands so distinctive. This new history embraces the whole of Central Europe, including the German lands as well as Ukraine and Switzerland. Most recent histories of Central Europe confine themselves to the lands in between Germany and Russia, homing in on Poland, Hungary, and what is now the Czech Republic. It was a permanent battleground too for religious and political ideas. This was the first home of the High Renaissance outside Italy, the cradle of the Reformation, the starting point of the Enlightenment, Romanticism, the symphony and modern nationalism. Competition among Europe's Middle Kingdoms yielded repeated cultural effervescences. They would later become the Turks, Swedes, Russians and Soviets, all of whom pulled the region apart and remade it according to their own vision. In the Middle Ages, Central Europeans cast their eastern foes as 'the dogmen'. From the Roman Empire onwards, it has been the tar.

The dramatic history of Europe's shape-shifting centre, from the author of The Habsburgs Central Europe is not just a space on a map but also a region of shared experience - of mutual borrowings, impositions and misapprehensions. Martin Rady shows how.The Middle Kingdoms: A New History of Central Europe (Hardback) Dynasty, Europe, global power, and the idea of the multi-national state all converge on the history of the Habsburg Empire. He also discusses the lands and kingdoms that made up the Habsburg Empire, and the decisive moments that shaped their history. He introduces the pantheon of Habsburg rulers, which included adventurers, lunatics, and at least one monarch who was so malformed that his true portrait could never be exhibited. In this Very Short Introduction Martin Rady looks at the history of the Habsburgs, from their tenth-century origins in Switzerland, to the dissolution of the Habsburg Empire in 1918. Reaching from South-East Asia to what is now Ukraine, the Habsburg Empire was truly global. Through the Spanish connection, they acquired lands around the Mediterranean and a chunk of the New World, spreading eastwards to include the Philippines.

From the thirteenth to the twentieth centuries, they ruled much of Central Europe, and for two centuries were also rulers of Spain. The Habsburgs are the most famous dynasty in continental Europe.

The habsburgs martyn rady