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sethdmichaels.bsky.social · @sethdmichaels.bsky.social@bridge.neodb.net

Rated Danubia: A Personal History of Habsburg Europe 8/10

Loved this! Freewheeling, dry-witted, not-especially-comprehensive history of the very weird Hapsburg Empire. He's a really digressive writer, sometimes to the point of being rambly, but he makes up for it with an eye for the strange and a way of conveying just how arbitrary and contingent the borders of modern Europe are. I read this in preparation for a trip to Vienna, Budapest and Prague - the imperial cities of this no-longer-existing empire - and it gave me a lot of great guidance on where to go and what to look for.<br/><br/>Highly recommend to history buffs, though not if you're looking for something crisply academic. Delightful and sad.

#book

Published 2026-08-18 17:06 UTC · bridged from Atmosphere