This is a very readable history book which still manages to provide a detailed history of the period. I found it fascinating and could not put it down. ( )

This is an excellent, highly detailed account of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand's life and death. It covers ground skipped over by most other biographies and histories, and dissects a number of myths attached to the assassination that kicked off World War I (which arguably led directly to World War II). The private life of the Archduke and his wife is described in depth and with the help of recollections, personal papers, and other items made available to the authors by their descendants. In addition, the authors point out some cogent historical records only released to scholars and historians in the aftermath of Yugoslavia's dissolution. The weirdly accidental vs. conspiratorial aspects of the murders are laid out with great clarity, and the portrait painted of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Habsburgs themselves, and Emperor Fraz Josef, in particular, is by turns surprising, irritating, and illuminating. ( )

Kind of like organic structures in nature, events in history seem to get more intriguing the closer you look. I wish I had had some idea of this when I was a student in school.

Here, the author details how the run-up to World War I and the precipitating crisis turned on the personal sentiments and acts of a few individuals and their unforeseen consequences. The cascade effect of one romantic attachment that defied official approval did literally change the world. ( )

Immensely detailed, but very readable account of the people, politics, military, intelligence, social, philosophical aspects surrounding the single violent event that within weeks sparked a conflict that would engulf almost the whole world. ( )

All of ever knew about Archduke Franz Ferdinand was that his assassination was the catalyst that started WWI, this book made him into a living, breathing person, a devoted and loving father and husband.
The author does an excellent job of writing about this tumultuous period of history without making it dry and boring. Focusing on the romance between Franzie and his Soph and their happy lives together makes their early deaths freshly sad and tragic to generations of readers who can't relate or understand what it must have been like in 1914.
( )