Imperial Requiem: Four Royal Women and the Fall of the Age of Empires by Justin C. Vovk
I have read a number of books on Czarina Alexandra, and there has been some discussion of Queen Mary and Empress Auguste Viktoria in those books, but only in connection with Alexandra, never in their own right. But none had as much detail as this one. And this book covered Empress Zita (de Bourbon-Parma), of whom, in all honesty, I had never heard.
This was a long, ambitious book, covering the lives of four women and spanning European history from 1852 to 1989. I have read reports that there was too much focus on the lives of the women and too little on world events, but the purpose of the book was to have an in-depth look at the lives of the women. World events shaped their lives, but other volumes covered the world events better. I did find toward the end of the book, the time period covered was much greater, with barely two pages spent on Queen Mary’s role during World War II. And from 1953 to 1989 was spanned in one relatively short chapter. But then again, the book was not designed to cover world events as such, just the lives of four women.
Overall, I think the book did a good job covering the lives of the women, and their worlds. There were new facts and new information about Czarina Alexandra and her role in her husband’s reign. I did wonder about some of the sources and the anecdotes, but overall it was an entertaining and informative book. And it has made me more curious about Empress Zita, who was the last Empress of Austria-Hungary and lived until 1989! I had no idea any of the major players in World War I lived that long. I knew there were some people who were alive during World War I in 1989, but I had no idea any of the deposed royalty had survived. Where were those facts when we were learning history?
This book was full of the kind of facts and tidbits that make you want to dig deeper into the history — for example, Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s sons were captured by Hitler and sent to a concentration camp, and it was only the intervention of other royals that saved them. Empress Zita was saved from a similar fate by President Woodrow Wilson’s invitation to immigrate to the US. At least three of Empress Auguste Viktoria’s sons sided with Hitler during World War II, disappointing their father, Kaiser Wilhelm II. These are the kind of things that would inspire more students to learn more. I have long thought that the way we teach history to children is the worst way possible. Forcing memorization of dates, places, and events is dry and boring. There is nothing interesting about that. Adding personal tidbits would engage students and encourage them to remember events. Also, tying the people, places, and events together in time is a good thing. History does not happen in isolation, people, even in ancient times talked to each other. News may have traveled much slower, but it did travel and things in one country had an impact on events in other countries. This book did a great job of keeping events in the women’s lives tied together in time; the chapters were periods of time, and had three or four sections in them describing the women’s lives during that period. That kind of structure helped connect events across nations, and it’s one of the things that many history books neglect.
On the whole, the book was very well done. It was enjoyable and informative and easy to read. You cannot make Czarina Alexandra’s life story good, the reality is, it was not, and certainly didn’t end in the peaceful way we all hope for our own lives. But the author did a good job of telling the real tale in a manner that did was not too depressing. It was not a novel-style, but the story was readable and enjoyable.
One Bear’s Opinion: Five Cups of Viennese Coffee, with a plate of delicious pastries
Happy Reading Everyone,
Oliver
