Thunder at Twilight: Vienna 1913/1914

by Frederic Morton

Book Overview

Thunder at Twilight is a landmark of historical vision, drawing on hitherto untapped sources to illuminate two crucial years in the life of the extraordinary city of Vienna--and in the life of the twentieth century. It was during the carnival of 1913 that a young Stalin arrived on a mission that would launch him into the upper echelon of Russian revolutionaries, and it was here that he first collided with Trotsky. It was in Vienna that the failed...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0306810212
• ISBN13: 9780306810213
• Release Date: April 2001
• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Length: 410 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.9" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Read Now to Find Out How Wars Get Started.

An excellent and lovely book that reads almost like a novel, it is also an alarming book if you read it, as I did, in the aftermath of September 11, 2001. The diplomatic and military blunders that produced World War I seem, at this moment, to provide a kind of blueprint for starting a war that no one really wants to start. Some of the correspondences between then and now are startling--for example, the super-ultimatum given to the offending country with the expectation that the terms cannot be met. Altogether I would rate this book higher than Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August, though, to be fair, Tuchman's book is more of a military history and gives only a tiny look at the opening shots of WWI--the murder of the Archduke who was the heir to the Austrian throne--whereas Morton's book establishes the Archduke Franz Ferdinand as a major character in the narrative, then reveals that the Archduke was (ironically) a pacifist who was trying to avert a war in Europe, and then places the Archduke's story in the context of the larger story of Vienna, Austria and Europe. One of the many pleasures that the book offers is an evocative look at the old, whimisical royalty-besotted Vienna just as it was begetting the new Europe--Freud, Trotsky, and Stalin all figure in the story of pre-WWI Vienna as do a number of other major political and artistic figures. Vienna was a prosperous, beautiful, pleasure-loving city that perversely found a way to start a horrific and self-destroying war.

The twilight of an empire ends with the thunder of guns.

Focusing on just two climactic years, 1913 - 1914, Frederic Morton recreates Vienna in all its splendor during the last days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The vibrant social, intellectual, and cultural life of Vienna is examined within the context of the seething nationalism of the Balkans, the Machiavellian intrigue among the political rulers of the European nations and Russia, and the human frailties of the seemingly larger-than-life national leaders, which assure that the twilight of the empire will eventually be overtaken by darkness. Rigorously selective in his choice of detail, Morton brings to life the varied activities of a broad cross-section of Viennese society, and reproduces the intellectual milieu which eventually leads to the rise of some of the most influential leaders of the twentieth century--Trotsky, Stalin, Adler, Freud, Jung, Lenin, Hitler, Tito, and a host of others, all of whom are part of Vienna life. Morton's seriousness of purpose and his scholarship are undeniable, yet his primary contribution here, it seems to me, is his ability to make historical personages come to life, to make the reader feel that they were real, breathing humans with both virtues and frailties, and not the cardboard characters one finds so often in history books. Vienna, as we see it here, has a real heart, albeit one that beats in 3/4 time. From the masquerades and balls held by all classes of society, to the revolutionary movements, innumerable newspapers and pamphlets, lively coffee houses, and seemingly endless games of political maneuvering, one feels the ferment and activity which must lead, eventually, to change. The liveliness of the city, as depicted here, is a visual and intellectual contrast to the formality and frailty of Emperor Franz Josef, making the twilight of his empire understandable and its demise inevitable. Even the empire's demise is stylish, however. According to Morton: As "The World War [came] to the city by the Danube, [it came] dressed as a ball. Tra-la...Hurrah!" Mary Whipple

Freud, Stalin, Trotsky, Hitler & Franz Ferdinand?

This is a terrific look at the socio-political aspects of life in Austria-Hungary's capitol of Vienna just before the outbreak of the First World War. It contains the most sympathetic pro-Franz Ferdinand view that I have ever come across. Morton's prose paints a vivid picture of the decaying Empire.The myriad of famous and infamous figures who were in Vienna in 1913-1914 is truly amazing. For the Empire: Doddering old Franz Joseph, the infamous militarist and Serbo-Italiano-Russo-phobe General Conrad, the Slavophobe Count Tisza of Hungary, the Kaiser and Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie. For the totalitarian future: Adolf Hitler (evading military service), Trotsky writing for Pravda, and Stalin passing thru on research for articles. Then there are segments devoted to Freud and his battles with Jung over psycho-analysis. Not to mention the detailing of the Serbian assassins and internal politics in the Empire. The tension builds as the clock ticks down to June 28, 1914 in Sarajevo. A perfic lead-in to John Biggin's novels "A Sailor of Austria" et al.

How everyone and everything came together in Vienna

Frederic Morton is one of the outstanding historians of our time. He makes connections between people and places and large world events in a way only matched by CV Woodward. Thunder at Twilight makes Vienna, at the outbreak of WWI, understandable and very real. You must read this book!