The Fall Of The Dynasties: The Collapse Of The Old Order, 1905-1922 [Illustrated Edition]

by Edmond Taylor

Originally published in 1963, The Fall of the Dynasties covers the period from 1905 to 1922, when the four ruling houses—the Habsburg, Hohenzollern, Ottoman, and Romanov—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.

Includes numerous maps and genealogical charts.

“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

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World War I, War, Russia, Politics, European History

256 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 18, 1963

About the author

Edmond L. Taylor was born on February 13, 1908 in St. Louis, Missouri. He attended Washington University in St. Louis, but abandoned school during his freshman year for journalism, starting as a police reporter for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. Traveling to Europe in 1928, Taylor joined the Chicago Tribune’s Paris edition, first as a reporter then as news editor. He joined the Chicago Tribune’s foreign news service in 1930 and became head of the Paris Bureau in 1933. Taylor covered the major events leading up to World War II, including the rise of Nazi Germany, the Spanish Civil War, the Austrian Anschluss, Mussolini’s invasion of Ethiopia, and the fall of France.

Taylor’s book, The Strategy of Terror, was published in 1940 and played an important role in revealing the nature and methods the psychological warfare waged by Nazi Germany. As a result, he was invited to join the Office of Coordinator of Information (1941-1942) and later the planning board of the Office of Strategic Services (1942-1946). In 1943, he served as a Navy commander in the North African Theater, and then, until 1946 as a member of Lord Louis Mountbatten’s staff in the South East Asia Command. Taylor was awarded the Bronze Star. Taylor returned to the United States in 1946 and wrote about his experiences in India and Thailand in Richer By Asia, published in 1947.

Between 1948 and 1950, Taylor worked in the Mass Communications Department of UNESCO. Taylor then worked as study director for the Council on Foreign Relations on a project on strengthening democratic leadership abroad (1950-1952), a consultant for the Office of Public Affairs for HICOG (1951), and as Assistant Director for Office of Plans and Policy for the Psychological Strategy Broad (1952).

Beginning in 1954, Taylor served as chief European correspondent of The Reporter magazine. Taylor also wrote a weekly newspaper column for a number of American dailies including the Washington Post. In addition, Taylor published two more books, the Fall of the Dynasties (1963) and Awakening From History (1969).

Taylor had two children, William and Caroline, with his first wife, Irene Silverstein Taylor. He also had two children, Michael and Anne, with his second wife, Anne Verena de Salis Taylor. He passed away at the age of 90 on March 30, 1998.

Reviews

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Omigod, did this book take a long time to get through. I have never longed more for an extensive bibliographic essay to take up the last 100+ pages. By page 300, I had read too much to quit, yet had 200 more pages to go. It was disheartening to say the least.

Evenings went like this:

"I should finish this book...or...OR...I could stare at dresses on a fashion blog for three hours."

"I should finish this book...or...OR...I could look up the history of these tiaras they mention in passing."

Part of the problem is the author sometimes wrote such awkward sentences that I had to rewrite them in my head before I could continue. Also, he would make references to people and events in passing and I would fall into the Wikipedia wormhole--albeit willingly. Also, wow, this guy was into the details, and not the fun ones. It was like reading an entire book of extraneous details that vaguely glanced over the big picture. Plus, he liked to go back in forth in time. I found myself asking "so when was this guy put before a firing squad" and "who is the Emperor of Austria right now?"

There is plenty of good information in this book, and I think I will read further into WWI history and find myself thinking "ooh, I remember that"--and for that it earns a third store. It's like broccoli that wasn't cooked to your liking. You'll get the nutrition, but you know it could taste so much better.

[Elinor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal- one of the best books I've read, but you have to like history. It provides an incredibly useful (and fascinating) foundation for understanding the causes leading up to World War I. The author very clearly demonstrates how much the war was a turning point for several of the world's major empires, and how life was irreversibly changed forever. The book is slightly outdated in some very minor respects, but otherwise the author is extremely lucid and compelling.

[Mark Singer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an old-fashioned top-down history about the fall of the ruling dynasties of the Austro-Hungarian (Habsburg), German (Hohenzollern), Russian (Romanov), and Ottoman Empires from the years just before, during, and after World War One. Edmond Taylor, a long-time foreign correspondent, tells the story from a journalists viewpoint, and is not afraid to give his opinion on the characters and events. I would recommend this to anyone interested in the period, and who enjoys a quick read.

[Babbs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hard to rate because some sections were more enjoyable than others. I felt the author was sometimes self-indulgent and dove down the rabbit hole on things that interested him, thus sacrificing the flow of the story. The piecing together of the story of the broader European theater was reasonably successful, but because of the tangential way the story was told, some of the linear development was lost through the cracks of overly detailed passages. I found the Russian perspective the most interesting and coherent of the story lines, but there is also no citation of the facts listed--either in footnote or an appendix. This lack of citation leads me to wonder if "76.3% of the men mobilized... [in Russia]", really did perish, or if this is an inflated statistic.

If you would like a more detailed account of the interaction of the monarchies, and random facts about each of the emerging countries, like Austria, then this is a good place to start. I would recommend you have a basal level of background knowledge of the time period, or it's going to be confusing and harder to follow as a unified story.

[Antonio Nunez · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great story of the long-term trends that led to war, revolution and the dissolution of the great empires that ruled most of Europe for centuries: Russia, Austria-Hungary, the Ottomans and Germany (a latecomer but the most powerful of all). Multinational empires had their good points. They kept reasonable order in regions where different peoples lived side by side. They also had had bad points. They were extremely hierarchical and dysfunctional. This was less the case in Germany where the dysfunctional one was the Kaiser William II rather than the system itself. The book shows in considerable detail how it was that, through secret diplomacy, conspiracy, ineptitude and corruption, it became almost unavoidable there would be a European war involving all major powers, and that said war would destroy dynasties and empires that seemed impervious to decay. Long term trends were abetted by the ineptitude of all sovereigns (particularly the Romanovs) and their immediate circles. There was also bad luck, much of it. Had the murder of Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo not taken place during the summer season, it might have been possible to preserve peace or at least to confine war to a limited territory, although odds would still have pointed to an eventual cataclysm.

As it was, the rotting structures of empires just burst at the seams when subject to terrible pressures. When it came, the end was at times farcical (as in Germany or Turkey), tragic (as in Russia) or just sad (as in Austria). It is worth reading this book just to remember how Turkey was born in war against foreign invaders to prevent the partition of the country. At this writing it is worth remembering that Turkey is frail, that Turks are a warrior nation and that instability there is a great risk for the people’s living there and for the world as a whole.

I give the book 4 starts in spite of being very readable and well informed, because I was offended by the author’s assertion that there is no need to feel any pity for any Romanov, because the dynasty brought Nemesis upon itself and because many other families where also destroyed by Revolution and civil war. What rubbish. While this may be true about Nicholas and Alexandra, how can it be the case for the imperial children? Admitting that Alexis could eventually become a pretender to the throne, the same cannot be said of his poor sisters. And the fact that thousands or millions of unnamed families where destroyed or hurt at this time does not stop one from feeling pity for the Romanovs, whose faces and voices we know. In fact, many of us feel pity for Charles I of England and for Louis XVI and their families even though to a large of extent they were to blame for their downfalls. In fact, I was rather annoyed by the author’s often smarmy tone of superiority when commenting on the shortcomings of many historic figures, although I accepted it because the enormity of the calamity that befell Europe in 1914-1922 (and afterwards) must be someone’s fault. Must this stop us from feeling sympathy for poor emperor Charles and his wife Zita? I think not.

[Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started this book with a bit of distrust. How can one author summarize the whole world before and after the Great War to show how it changed? I dreaded the long arguments, the irrelevant facts and the mandatory disfiguring the reality. Now I am pleasantly surprised as I finished on this day of remembrance. Edmond Taylor reaches the fine balance of analysis and narrative. He chooses his markers well focusing on the most drastic changes and dramatic effects. His study of Tsarist Russia is sober but it does not lack compassion. He writes more of events and less of grand personalities, unless like Lenin and Nicholas they have influenced the events directly. He highlights the similarities and the changes, the cost, the pain, and the suffering without judging any one side. The curious mind who wants to understand a general framework of events in the Great War, must not pass on this book. She or he should grab it and finish it without being afraid of its mission. Since this is a great masterpiece of scholarly research and compassionate reporting.

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

A high-level history of the WWI era. Very well done, and the perfect example of what i find so wonderful about history: one can tell the story of an entire planet, or the story of a single event, or even the story of a single human, in the same number of words... as for the stories that are told in this book that can EASILY be a book on their own:

- the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo
- Europe, and its social order, on the eve of WWI
- Russia on the eve of WWI
- Austria-Hungary on the eve of WWI
- Ottoman Empire on the eve of WWI
- The Balkans
- Kaiser Wilhelm II
- Rasputin
- Lenin and the rise of the Bolsheviks

it is safe to say that EVERYTHING that has happened in the world in the last 90 years can be traced back to the events and decisions of a small group of characters in Europe.... a fascinating read.

[Betsy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Parts of this book are excellent, particularly the opening chapters on each of the four dynasties. Later on the book tends to drag. The author has the unfortunate habit of a rather "cutesy" intro to several topics, hinting that he just thought the reader might like to know this.

The information on the Hohenzollerns and the Habsburgs is the most entertaining, while the self-inflicted calamity of the Russian Revolution on Russia and the Tsar is tragic. The blindness of the "autocrat" and his wife makes one cringe, even though Russia's efforts were important to the Allied success in the war.

The fourth dynasty discussed is that of the Ottomans (Osmanlis). In light of what has happened in the Middle East since 1918, the break up of that Empire has had dramatic consequences.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Marathon History reading of the political and economical situation in Europe pre WWI.
Edmond Tyler managed to represent the history in a wonderful style - precise and even entertaining, as much as there was some entertainment in that situation.

[Joshua · Rating 2 out of 5]

The last quarter of the book was painful. The Fall of the Dynasties by Edmond Taylor was first published in 1963. Taylor wrote to an audience that had lived through World War II, and so many of his observations are focused on how the events of World War I would lead to World War II and the Cold War. Taylor focuses on the ends of the Romanov (Russia), Hapsburg (Austria-Hungary), Hohenzollern (Germany) Dynasties and the Ottoman Empire. It felt uneven, with the Romanov and Hohenzollern Dynasties getting lion's share of the book. Taylor focuses most of the book on the decades leading up to the war. The intricacies of the various courts and their social/cultural and economic stresses that lead to their demise are presented clearly, but Taylor becomes preachy about how every event leads up to Communism or Hitler's rise to power became tiresome to me. I have read other author's who present more nuanced connections to World War I and World War II and so Taylor's simple explanations are not engaging. Taylor also seems fascinated with Victorian sexual norms so there is considerable time spent on the harems of the Ottoman Empire, and how that shaped the court system of the Ottoman Empire, and Rasputin's sexual conquests among the court of the Czar.
In the end, it's a decent explanation, but much better books have been written since 1963 about these events.

[Alan Vanneman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent book, giving a "human" view of the ruling houses of Europe just prior to World War I, even including the Turkish sultan, who so often gets left out of things. The way this book is marketed encourages readers to believe that it's a recent publication. In fact, Edmund Taylor was born in 1908, and experienced the aftermath of World War I as a young man, so that he writes almost with nostalgia about an age that he didn't quite experience--though he grew up in Missouri, and not in a palace. But the nostalgia is generally clear-eyed. However much Taylor regrets the chaos that followed World War I, he is honest enough to hold the "Dynasties" accountable for their fate.

[Rex Fuller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before World War I, the Habsburgs, the Hohenzollerns, Ottomans, and Romanovs ruled the Austro-Hungarian, German, Turk, and Russian empires respectively just as they had for centuries. Due mainly to their own ineptitude in failing to avoid it, the War ended their dynasties.

Taylor describes exactly how it all happened in lucid, often acerbic, English that saves what might otherwise have been too long of a slog.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is very detailed with facts and figures but never forgets the human element that shapes history. Taylor often takes a narrative style in the book and focuses on the personal motives and schemes of influential individuals. You really understand the desperation of the leaders of Europe's powers as they trudge, unwillingly, into the Great War.

As another reviewer mentioned, the book is a bit outdated now but still has pages full of useful information. A basic understanding of the time period is certainly useful before reading but not necessary because it is so enthralling you will just continue reading.

An understanding of WW1 requires an understanding of the events leading up to it and this book provides that.

[Garnette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Why did World War I start? The Ottoman Empire was falling apart, on its last legs. The Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Russian Empire eagerly anticipated gobbling up the bits and pieces, not realizing that their empires too were rotting from within. The newly unified Germans longed to expand. Ethnic minorities, long held under the thumbs of distant emperors, dreamed of independence. It’s a complicated story’ each region has its own unique characteristics. Taylor tackles it all, telling a long, complex story systematically. I learned a lot. But it was long. I’m glad I read it and I’m glad it’s over.

[GEORGE MARQUES · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is over 50 years old but it is not dated at all. Although new and amazing scholarship has been developed since its publication, it can still be safelly read as a great introduction as any to the causes of the I World War and the downfall of the European dynasties. I believe it could be read before two amazing books about the period, "The Sleepwalkers", by Chrispopher Clark, on the causes of the I WW; and "A People's Tragedy", by Orlando Figes, on the Russian Revolution. The three books togheter make you understand why the first decades of the 20th Century would have such deep consequences for the history of humankind.

[Claudia · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've been working on this book off and on for over one year and I'm only at the half way mark. I refuse to continue. At certain points, I went to Wikipedia to read an overview of a particular topic or person. Wikipedia made more sense and was more interesting. I think the only readers who might gain something from this ponderous, scholarly treatise would be history PHD's or energetic PHD level students. It's a relief to excuse myself from further study in this book. I'm changing majors!

[Henry Sturcke · Rating 3 out 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.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was enlightening to see how so many different events all flowed together to create the last glory days of empires before WWI and the wholesale destruction of that old world by not only the war, but the rise of Bolshevism/Leninism which turned Europe into a seething mass of uprisings, civil war, and nationalism.

[Jessica Roberts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything you ever wanted to know ....

...about the fall of dynastic autocracy in Europe. The Book deals with the personalities as well as the events before, during and after WWI. Written in the 1960s, it's a decent read (despite the author's clumsy style of segues.) It's certainly more comprehensive in the people coverage than any book about WWI I have read.

[Hytham · Rating 4 out of 5]

كتاب متميز جدا عن سقوط وانهيار وبعث الاستبداد ، قصة القادة الذين لا يبصرون مع الجماهير ، قصة الأخطاء القديمة التي لاتنسى ، قصة الثورات التي تؤدي إلى الحروب والحروب التي تؤدي إلى الثورات ! " سقوط الأسر الحاكمة " ل "إدموند تيلور " كتاب عن أيام لن تغيب عن ذاكرة الشعوب الثائرة !

[Tucker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Taylor says: “The monarchies of pre-1914 Europe were rushing to their final extinction for the same reason that the dinosaurs of the Carboniferous Age had waddled to theirs. They had simply ceased to be adapted to their environment.” The purpose of this book: “to identify some of the most significant or dramatic stages of this apocalyptic process.”

This history book from 1963 has a lot of color, sparkle, and narrative drive, so I can see why it is being reprinted in the 21st century. Some sentences veer toward the odd ("These were a few of the ideas leaping in Aehrenthal's restless mind, like apes of thought swinging from branch to branch in some equatorial jungle"), and more boringly offensive things are said about the homosexuals and the Turks, and allegedly castration makes European men skinny and African men fat, and you can imagine et cetera. Anyhow.

Of the Ottoman Empire, which lasted over six centuries, he says:

“Like the Habsburgs, the Osmanlis never put down firm national roots. Osman II (1258 – 1325), who founded the dynasty, belonged to a Turkish-speaking tribe of people that had recently migrated from Central Asia to settle in Anatolia (the Asiatic core of modern Turkey), up against the Byzantine frontier, as vassals of the neighboring Seljuks, the more civilized descendants of earlier Turkish invaders, who then ruled in Bagdad.”

He says the sultanate was mostly interested in political power and argues that its close alliance with Islam was a strategic error. The Muslim clerics were fanatics, and they were insufficiently tolerant of Christians, who existed and needed to be considered more in politics.

The Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), which was behind the 1908 Young Turk revolution, “explicitly professed the doctrine of ‘Ottomanism’ — loyalty to the cause of a multi-national empire, with every ethnic group enjoying equal civic and political rights under a constitutional ruler. Though they were known abroad as Young Turks, the members of the CUP did not think of themselves as Turkish nationalists.” Indeed, they found the word “Turk” insulting.

In this era, “millions enjoyed unprecedented well-being and other millions lived in more than usually abject misery.” The Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria, killed on 28 June 1914, and his young assassin Gavrilo Princip

"typify not merely opposing national interests but two conflicting social orders, two ages of history, two incompatible patterns of human destiny. In a sense they were both victims — and so are all of us — of the same revolutionary process: the decline and fall of the dynastic system in Europe and of the social structures it supported."

By the time of the World War,

“Technological and sociological progress had rendered war too dangerous to be used as a means for achieving national objectives, but the rulers of nations had not yet realized it — half a century later [in the 1960s], we are just beginning to grasp the idea — and their political imagination had not evolved techniques or concepts of diplomacy capable of settling major international problems without resort to war (neither has ours).”

This First World War was in some ways more traumatic than the Second, though the quantifiable damage was smaller. “The Old World never recovered from the shock.”

Wondering about one of the Kaiser's particularly important luncheons on Sunday, July 5, 1914, Taylor speculates: “It seems a fair inference that the soup course was clear turtle — everything in the situation cries for clear turtle — and no doubt there was plenty of well-chilled hock, the day being warm.” I really wish I knew what "everything in the situation cries for clear turtle" means.

The Austrians had enabled the nationalism within the Ottoman Empire, and they discovered in 1918 that “they themselves had been a minority all along, without realizing it.”

Also, he called “Louis-Ferdinand Celine’s Journey to the End of the Night , perhaps the absolute zero in literary nihilism.” I wish I knew what that means, too, though, as it refers to a book I have not read, it must be relatively easy to find out.

[Rodney Harvill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book documents the political changes in Eurasia that took place before, during and after World War I, primarily the collapse of four ruling dynasties:

• The Prussian Hohenzollern dynasty in Germany
• The Hapsburg dynasty in Austria-Hungary
• The Romanov dynasty in Russia
• The Ottoman sultanate

All of these dynasties had lasted for centuries, all of them were in existence at the outbreak of war in 1914, and none of them were in existence after 1922. In addition to the details of each dynasty’s involvement in world events during this time period and its fall, the late Mr. Taylor goes over the history, flaws and dysfunctionalities of each one. Just small earthquakes can herald a big one, there were several wars in the Balkan peninsula in the decades prior to World War I, one just a year or two prior to it. He discusses this history as well as its ramifications. Mr. Taylor had quite the way with words, too. For example, in discussing the truly byzantine organization of the sultan’s harem, he referred to “the Byzantine talent for making even luxury as complicated as possible.” Furthermore, he had the following assessment of the 1878 Congress of Berlin that resolved a conflict between Russia and Britain over the how Treaty of San Stefano redrew the map of the Balkan peninsula:

“Once again the old world diplomacy displayed its genius for creating the irreparable while postponing the inevitable.”

I guess it’s a bit obvious that Mr. Taylor has a rather low opinion of these increasingly sclerotic dynasties.

I have the following observations about this book:

• Mr. Taylor prefers to use Anglicized names. For example, he uses Francis Joseph for Franz Joseph.
• The early twentieth century was a time of governmental transition toward the dominance of specialists. As government became increasingly complex, specialists began to call the shots, turning even dynastic monarchs effectively into figureheads.
• War was not inevitable after Gavrilo Princip shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand. However, some officials within the German and Austro-Hungarian governments felt that the destruction of Serbia would strengthen Austria-Hungary. During the countdown to war, these officials withheld critical information from both nations’ monarchs until it was too late for them to alter the course of events to ensure that the “right decisions” were made.
• Mr. Taylor feels that the terms of the Treaty of Versailles were excessively harsh and contributed to the events leading to the outbreak of World War II. While I concede the second point, I dispute the first point. Once it became clear to Berlin that defeat was inevitable, they communicated a desire for a Wilsonian peace that would not be excessively harsh on them. I am inclined to agree with Margaret MacMillan’s assessment in her book Paris 1919. The treaty of Brest-Litovsk that Germany imposed on Russia was not even close to Wilsonian. If they weren’t willing to grant a Wilsonian peace when they were victorious, they had no right to complain if they didn’t quite get a Wilsonian peace. Besides, Woodrow Wilson was only one of several allied heads of state at the table. The others had a vote on terms, as well.

I read the Kindle version of this book which appears to have been scanned from a hard copy and noticed a number of misspellings and instances of missing punctuation that resulted from flaws in the scan. Aside from being impressed at the shear number of ways “the” can be misspelled by the scanning process, I enjoyed reading the book and seeing Mr. Taylor’s perspective on this pivotal period of world history.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Perhaps the most interesting thing about Edmond Taylor's The Fall of the Dynasties is that it was written in 1963 and so provides a different perspective on the events leading up to World War I and surrounding the Russian Revolution than more current works. I did a double take the first time I read about "the last man alive who can tell us..." and certainly in the 60s the story of the Balkans was only half-written.

As the title says, The Fall of the Dynasties is an in-depth look at the final years of the German, Austro-Hungarian, Russian, and Ottoman empires. Actually, it's an in-depth look at the first three, and a single chapter on the last (which was too bad, because the chapter on the Ottomans was pretty fascinating, but I digress). Taylor explores the broader societal underpinnings that led to war, but also the personal flaws and foibles of the crowned heads, whose decisions - or lack thereof - sent their empires headlong into a war from which neither ruler nor ruled would ever entirely recover. (To that end, the Czarina came off the worst, while the doddering Habsburg, Francis Joseph, appeared mostly to be swept away by events, at least in the final years. Of course, he was an octogenarian on the eve of the war.)

On the whole, I found the book alternated between extremely interesting and sleep-inducing. As I said before, I wanted more of the Ottomans; conversely, I wanted less of the Romanovs - or, more specifically, of the Bolsheviks and what felt like every.single.detail. of the run up to and immediate aftermath of the Russian Revolution.

It's certainly not terrible, and largely still relevant - plus today's reader has the benefit of the last half-century of history in understanding how the Balkans, Slavic nationalism, and the rise and subsequent fall of the Soviets all played out. That said, there are simply many other more interesting, and possibly complete, books on closely-related topics. The interested reader may want to consider any of the following in lieu of or in addition to The Fall of the Dynasties.

For an empire-by-empire tour that also considers the roles of the British, American, French, and Japanese empires: 1913: In Search of the World Before the Great War.

A concise look at the the many failures - diplomatic and military - that ultimately led to four years of unrelenting bloodshed across Europe, and eventually the world: The Guns of August.

For more on the consequences of empire in the Middle East: Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia or Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell (Lawrence and Bell are both British, so there is also quite a bit about the British Empire, but each offers an excellent look at the Middle East before - and after - World War I).

And, of course, I would be remiss not to add The Beauty and the Sorrow to this list, as it remains, for me, the most in-depth and moving look at World War I imaginable. As a POW remarks, “the great lords have quarreled, and we must pay for it with our blood, our wives and children” (p. 18-19).

[Dawn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I usually find European history fascinating even when it’s not written very well. I think I would rather go back and re-read any of my primary or secondary school history books than slog through this pretentious crap.
I’ve had teachers and professors who never met a date in history that they didn’t like and wanted us to remember. That was but one problem with this book. It certainly didn’t help that there wasn’t much of a linear timeline except maybe towards the end. Maybe.
Yes, this is a book about the fall of the monarchies in Europe and Russia (to an extent), but the author spends a great deal on the Hapsburg family tree with a few breaks to fill the reader in on the Czar’s family in Russia and a bit on the German monarchy.
The biggest problems I had were his opinionated commentary when describing people and some places (especially during WWI) and his prolific use of $100 words when there was no reason to. I’m not talking about the decision to use certain words of Germanic, Austrian, or Eastern European descent that were fairly common at the time and some still being used today. At least most of those instances he defined the words. I found myself having to use my dictionary dozens of times, which is a record. Since I began reading as a child, I would maybe have to look up a word maybe once or twice a year. Maybe. And even then I was more likely to look up the pronunciation of a word than the definition itself. Except flibbertigibbet a few years ago when it was used to describe a character (I want to say it used to describe a young Zelda Fitzgerald); I knew both what it meant and how to pronounce it, but I was curious as to whether or not it really was a genuine word and not something someone just made up and it caught on (like ain’t).

[john Calkin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book deserves 5 stars, but the people who digitized it garbled passages so badly that I knocked it down to three. I kept asking myself why this book was so hard to read. The author has a huge vocabulary but Kindles handy dictionary got me through that. I finally decided that the paragraphs I couldn't understand after three readings couldn't be the originals. Somebody muffed them into incomprehensibility. I had realized that the punctuation was messed up early on.

Nevertheless---by WWI the Royals of Hungary-Austria, Germany, and Russia had let the reigns of power fall into the hands of appointed bureaucrats and had no idea that they were completely out of touch with reality and had largely become figureheads. By the end of the Great War, they had become meaningless and centuries-old Monarchies toppled. This portion of history is covered in enough detail to occasionally put me to sleep.

The last chapters describe Europe as it moved into the 1920s, and for the first time in my life I came to understand how leaderless people allowed---and encouraged---the rise of dictatorships that made another world war inevitable. Much recent history was spawned in backrooms by some truly vile people who were willing to condemn untold numbers of lives to create societies that could only exist in their minds until they had total control of civilization.

[Mark Zodda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dense, but interesting, I thought that I had a good vocabulary until I read this book. First published in 1963, this academic tome is clearly not intended for the average reader; some of the English used comes from some posh old 19th century college where they spoke in Latin and Greek. Add in the names of regions of Europe and countries that no longer exist and a complete lack of maps, and there is a significant chance that you'll have to google something every few pages in order to keep up with the text. When you throw in the off-hand references to events that must have been common knowledge to an upper level historian in 1935, you have a slow-moving, frustrating, but ultimately interesting look at the origins of the Great War and its immediate aftermath. While I'm glad that I managed to slog through this one, it is clearly not for every(any)one.

[W.A. McDonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

All my history was a lie.

Most of my history said that a man was assassinated and as a result Germany rushed in and started WWI. This book kind of puts that view on its head. More importantly it answers dozens of questions I've carried with me for a long time. Where did Germany come from. I knew, because of a great history teacher that the Prussian's were key in defeating Napoleon, but how did Prussia become Germany. This book explains that. It explains the origins of the four major monarchies in existence at the beginning of WWI.

Yes, the book is rife with punctuation errors, but I'm going to dismiss that as a product of converting a print book to digital. A old print book that didn't ever know there would be digital.

I'm a new student of history and this book was a good find.

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was great fun reading this European history book while touring Switzerland. I felt really close to this action. Unfortunately (or fortunately), the actual reading of the book was quite boring and I had to either fight jet lag or use it to overcome middle of the night wide awake moments.

I'm really glad I finished it because it taught me how little I actually know about this period in history. I've been really curious for awhile now about the Russian revolution and this book filled in some of those holes. That being said, it wasn't a fun read and was written many years ago, so I wouldn't use it as the primary source for this knowledge. I ended up with it just from an Amazon sale and my unwillingness to spend the time to find a better source.

[Dennis Hogan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just finished The Fall of the Dynasties: The Collapse of the Old Order, 1905-1922 by Edmond Taylor, an in depth look at the events and conditions leading up to WW1 and its aftermath. A very dense book but a joy to a history need. This has been my nightstand book for the last few months and I admit there were times it aided me falling to sleep. The book opens withe assassination of Arch Duke Ferdinand and actually explains why this was the cause of WW1. Along the way you see the demise of four ruling houses, the Habsburg, Hohenzollern, Ottoman, and Romanov. The impact to world order is still relevant today. I was particularly interested in the collapse of the Romanov’s in Russia and the spread of communism.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a comprehensive history of pre and post WWI europe far more than a history of the interplay between and personalities and relations of the monarchs of the various empires. To be honest I couldn’t believe how long it took me to (almost) finish. I am student of history of this period but the unbelievable density of the text, and the unnecessary degree of digressions to (in many instances not even interesting) subplots made this a slow slog of a read. Given that it is 40 years old, I worry that the history of the period is incomplete given all that has been learned since the downfall of the communist system and the ensuing information that has become available. I DID find the author’s incredible un-“pc” descriptions of some of the characters to be “laugh out loud” funny.