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£14.99
Published
20 May 2025
Hardback
9781913083533
Ebook
9781913083540
Press Release
Coming soon.
By Nicholas T. Parsons:

 

Austria is a small country with a glorious history but a troubled past. It sits at the crossroads of central Europe: the furthest the Ottomans reached in the seventeenth century, a Cold War back-channel between east and west, an EU member with its neutrality now challenged by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Nicholas T. Parsons expertly charts the colourful course of Austria from its origins at the outer reaches of the Roman empire to the postwar republic today. From the Romans to the Reformation, from Archduke Franz Ferdinand to the Anschluss, and from Mozart to Klimt to Harry Lime, this is a lively history that shows just how important Austria’s story is to Europe’s as a whole.

Old Street Publishing The Shortest History of Austria

Austria is a small country with a glorious history but a troubled past. It sits at the crossroads of central Europe: the furthest the Ottomans reached in the seventeenth century, a Cold War back-channel between east and west, an EU member with its neutrality now challenged by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Nicholas T. Parsons expertly charts the colourful course of Austria from its origins at the outer reaches of the Roman empire to the postwar republic today. From the Romans to the Reformation, from Archduke Franz Ferdinand to the Anschluss, and from Mozart to Klimt to Harry Lime, this is a lively history that shows just how important Austria’s story is to Europe’s as a whole.

 14.99
 
 

'Incisive but comprehensive, entertaining and well-illustrated, this is the perfect introduction to what was once a huge empire and is now a small but (undeservedly) very lucky country'
—Tim Blanning, author of The Pursuit of Glory: Europe 1648–1815

 
 
  • 'Erudite, insightful, lucid and entertaining. A wonderful introduction to the mysteries of Austrian history and the rituals of Austrian culture’ —Lonnie R. Johnson, author of Central Europe: Enemies, Neighbours, Friends
  • ‘A great deal of world history starts in Austria. Some ends there too. But Austria and Vienna have shown themselves capable of endless reinvention in all the arts of civilisation including the making of history. That makes them ideal topics for Nicholas
    Parsons’ wittily ironic pen and capacious imagination’ —John O'Sullivan, Director, The Danube Institute
  • ‘What is a guidebook for? Tutor, art critic, counsellor, companion – Parsons traces in scholarly detail the mutation of the genre over time… He is rigorous, sophisticated, sharp and humorous. And he writes very well’ —Financial Times on Worth the Detour
 
 
Nicholas T. Parsons

Nicholas T. Parsons is the author of Blue Guide Austria and Vienna: A Cultural and Literary History, as well as Worth the Detour, a history of the guidebook as a literary genre, and The Joy of Bad Verse, a celebration of successfully bad poets. His most recent books are Civilisation and its Malcontents (2019) and Democracy: A Narrative from Aristotle to Trump (2023). For thirty years, he has been writing about Central Europe, and in particular Austria, which he regards as a second home.