Metternich

Strategist and Visionary

By: Wolfram Siemann, Daniel Steuer - translator

Narrated by: Nigel Patterson

Metternich has a reputation as the epitome of reactionary conservatism. Historians treat him as the archenemy of progress, a ruthless aristocrat who used his power as the dominant European statesman of the first half of the nineteenth century to stifle liberalism, suppress national independence, and oppose the dreams of social change that inspired the revolutionaries of 1848. Wolfram Siemann paints a fundamentally new image of the man who shaped Europe for over four decades. He reveals Metternich as more modern and his career much more forward-looking than we have ever recognized.

Clemens von Metternich emerged from the horrors of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, Siemann shows, committed above all to the preservation of peace. That often required him, as the Austrian Empire's foreign minister and chancellor, to back authority. He was, as Henry Kissinger has observed, the father of realpolitik. But short of compromising on his overarching goal Metternich aimed to accommodate liberalism and nationalism as much as possible. Siemann draws on previously unexamined archives to bring this multilayered and dazzling man to life.

©2019 the President and Fellows of Harvard College (P)2022 Tantor

Outstanding in all ways

Excellent writing to narration. Perfect last words for the book by the great arbiter and figure of history

Very intensely researched

Remarkably deep view into the details of a remarkable life that had an outsized impact on European history.

Major Metternich Revision

Admirable performance and impressive imprint (Harvard Press) delivered excellent scholarly reconsideration of Metternich. I went looking for a survey of post revolutionary France and got way more than that. I eventually purchased the kindle book to be able to wiki the people and events covered. Listened to audible twice after long Napoleon detour and enjoyed every moment. Book maybe not be intended for a general history audience (me) but the effort was well worth it.

Superb and informative

Deeply rooted in freshly accessed sources.
Some phases of history are glaciated by the polemics of the time. Metternich’s career is one.
This book effects a tremendous thaw. All future scholarship will have to contend with it.

wonderful if you love history

Very interesting and detailed. This book gave me a wonderful insight on historical events and the shaping of European nations from an absolute fantastic perspective. Metternick is a fascinating figure and was at incredibly pivotal moments in history. So far ahead of his time that the later mockery of his contemporaries is expected. Well written and excellently performed.

Dull

Reads like a textbook, and somehow takes an interesting statesman living in the most interesting of times, and turns the story into a dull slog.

Like listening to your teacher read a textbook

I am several hours in and had to push myself to get this far. Unfortunately I can’t find the motivation to continue, the 14 generations of history and details about his station in life, I’m so bored and none of this is what I was interested in hearing about the icon of “RealPolitik”.