The Red Prince: The Fall of a Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Europe
by Timothy Snyder

1. The first ever biography of the extraordinarily colourful Archduke Wilhelm von Habsburg (1895-1947). Tattooed, bisexual, crossdressing, multilingual, he was a major - & symbolic - figure in 20th-century European culture & politics.2. Born into one of the great European dynasties with every expectation of a glittering future, instead he became a playboy in Paris during the 1930s & died – a spy for Britain - under interrogation in a Soviet prison.3. The arc of Wilhelm’s life therefore describes the dying fall of the ancien régime – the Europe of his birth bears very little resemblance to that of his death.4. Operating largely in inter-war Europe, Wilhelm is like a Le Carré character – a prisoner of private impulses that drove him to a doomed secret war.5. To the history of the Second World War the book adds a detailed discussion of Hitler’s confrontation with a particular object of his loathing – the Habsburg family.6. A major subject of the book is Soviet communism and it’s effect on the individual; cf Vassily Grossman’s Life & Fate & A Writer at War.7. This is a book of exceptional brilliance and originality – it cites documents from 20 archives & in 12 languages; each chapter title is a different colour.

Reviews

Timothy Snyder is one of the most remarkable and original historians of Eastern Europe in his generation. His work commands our attention.
Timothy Garton Ash 

He is one of this country's most talented and innovative historians of Central and Eastern Europe... I hugely admired The Reconstruction of Nations and eagerly look forward to The Red Prince.
Niall Ferguson 

Timothy Snyder is not only one of the leading authorities on Central European history writing today, he is also an elegant stylist, with a talent for storytelling - a wonderful combination.
Anne Applebaum