The Great Survivors: How Monarchy Made It Into the Twenty-First Century. Peter Conradi

by Peter Conradi

From the coauthor of "The King's Speech" comes an uncompromising portrayal of Europe's royals In this riveting and extensively researched account of the royals, Peter Conradi--the celebrated coauthor of "The""King's Speech," on which the Academy Award-winning film of the same name was based--reveals the scandals, excesses, conflicts, and interests hidden behind the pomp of the ceremonial garb and the grandeur of official functions. Taking the reader on a journey between past and present into a world populated by great celebrities such as Wallis Simpson, Grace Kelly, and Princess Diana, as well as lesser-known and slightly murkier aristocratic figures, this book analyzes the reasons behind this anachronistic paradox by looking at the history of the main European dynasties and providing a keyhole glimpse into their world, their lives, and their secrets. At a time when Western society appears to be demanding more equality and democracy, people's fascination with monarchies shows no signs of waning.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Royalty, Biography

383 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

See also philosopher Peter J. Conradi

Foreign Editor of The Sunday Times & author of The King's Speech and of Who Lost Russia? How the World Entered a New Cold War, updated and out now in paperback

Reviews

[Nancy Stringer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clinging to the throne...
Europe's royals may be gaffe-prone but they are surprisingly resilient.

[PatR · Rating 2 out of 5]

boring

[Terezia · Rating 5 out of 5]

E o carte cuprinzatoare si foarte bine strucurata. La finalul lecturii ramai cu multe cunostinte noi, unele interesante, altele amuzante. Mi-a placut mult faptul ca la final este adaugat un capitol despre monarhia din Romania.
Si chiar azi s-au implinit 70 de ani de la abdicarea fortata a regelui Mihai...

[May · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pros: The book is not just about the British royal family. It also includes the other European royal houses and all of their "dirty" secrets and controversies from the past 200 years.

Cons: Seriously, why is the font in this book so small? I was almost tempted to take this book with me to work so I can borrow the magnifying glass or Merlin Machine (electronic magnifier) in order to read it. Also, the organization of the book is broken down by themes which can very confusing as the author bounces back and forth through time and countries to make his points.

Yes, I am a royalist and yes, that means I especially love reading books about royalty. I was really excited to read this book mainly because I wanted to learn more about the other European monarchies. This book does not disappoint but if you are anything like me and have followed royal happenings for the past 10 years or more courtesy of the internet, you probably won't come across too much new information in this book. Although I have to admit, I did enjoy the section discussing succession issues arising from outdated inheritance laws.

In any case, the author focuses much of his attention on the major royal houses--Sweden, Norway, Spain, Denmark, Netherlands and Monaco. Occasionally he discusses Luxembourg and Liechtenstein which is a shame because their houses are so seldom featured in royalty mags. Although I should clarify that Luxembourg has had more spotlight recently when Prince Guillaume (heir) married in October 2012. I really wished the author spent more time exploring some of the "deposed" royal houses such as Greece, Italy and Bulgaria. What is the current opinion in these countries about the monarchy? Is there a chance for the monarchs to come back and play any type of role in their countries? What lessons do these deposed monarchs serve to current monarchs?

As previously mentioned, the chapters are broken down by themes and thereby enables the author to jump from one royal family (and country) to another as well as time periods. For example, you could start off with discussing the Spanish family in 2010 and then jump to the British family in 1860s and then back to the Danish family in 1920. Essentially this book can be very confusing to the royalist newbie. Personally I think the author could have organized his book by royal households and still argued various over-arching themes--need for modernization, need to be more in touch with its subjects, need to be more media savvy, etc. With this format, the author could then have spent more time exploring other "fascinating" royals such as Princess Astrid (Belgium), Grand Duke Henri (Luxembourg) and my personal favorite, Alexandra, Countess of Frederiksborg (Denmark) instead of the usual royals like Charles (England), William (England), Albert (Monaco)and Willem-Alexander (Netherlands).

I would recommend this title to other royalists but would caution those who are not as familiar with the European houses to read the Wikipedia entries first before tackling this book. Hopefully that will help lessen the frustration as you work your way through it. Also, try to read this book in broad daylight or get a magnifying glass. The book's small print is a huge strain on the eyes.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was recommended to me from a friend as we talked about the future of the monarchies. It gives a good, and easy, overview of the various monarchies in Europe, and the history behind them.

The organization in the book can be a bit confusing as we go along. But in the end I feel that this way of doing it, makes the comparison between the monarchies easier. Conradi could have written one chapter per country, which could have worked, but the comparison between the countries is one of the reasons for why I think the book worked well for me.

There are errors here and there (why would a Dutch prince need to ask the Norwegian parliament for permission to marry, for example?), but despite that, I am left with a feeling that I have read a thorough book about the European monarchies. It is well-written and easy to follow along. At the same time, Conradi is diligent (though this varies from chapter to chapter) at providing sources for his information.

Interestingly, he is going with both the sugar-filled sources and the more critical ones. In some cases, like when he is quoting the Villemann book about the Danish royals, it feels like he is on very unstable ground for parts of it.

There are also errors in the book, or places where Conradi has decided to go with either speculation or uncertain sources. Some I noted are below, but there are others.

When bringing up the Danish financial situations, Conradi either does not know or has neglected to mention, that Count Ingolf also receives funding from the state along similar lines as Countess Alexandra.

He refers to Diana, Princess of Wales as "Princess Diana, the estranged wife of Prince Charles."

The parenthesis that states that "Margriet’s sons, Pieter-Christiaan and Floris, who both made what were deemed unsuitable marriages in 2005," is erroneous, or the very least, I wish there would be a source to the statement. Neither of the two applied for parliamentary permission for their marriages, but by the time they married, they were so far down the line of the succession anyway that it seemed very unlikely that they would ever need to step up to the throne.

But these are minor errors in an otherwise very interesting book.

Overall, flaws and everything, I do think it is a book worth reading. If only because it does give a nice overview, (scandals, skeletons and everything nice,) of the monarchies of Europe. The truly unfortunate thing is that the book was written to coincide with the Diamond Jubilee - but the major events for the future of several of the other European monarchies happened the year after, in 2013, when both Beatrix and Albert abdicated.

[E.S. Ivy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book does give some history and background on the monarchies in Europe that I knew little to nothing about. But, it's organization is very confusing. It's arranged by subjects, such as "Kings Behaving Badly" and "Playing the Waiting Game" which means that each chapter covers multiple royal families. Very confusing to follow who's who, especially since royalty sometimes gets called by different names depending on whether they have been crowned, given a title, etc. I had to flip around a lot and search for photos on the web trying to keep people straight.

To mention photos, it doesn't help that there is only the *minimal* number of photographs. Lots of people, even if they are royal, do not have a photo. For example there's no photo of the heirs of Liechtenstein or Belgium, and the Dutch heir is a fuzzy partial face in the background. The photos are *not* "the lavish colour photos of royals" promised.

It also does not explain well how these monarchies survived when others did not. What did they do differently from the monarchies of, for example, France and Russia? I was really hoping for some historical analysis.

[Rebecca Huston · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good look at the role, lifestyles and intrigues of modern Europe's monarchies. Plenty of scandals and triumphs, with some good photos and a speculative chapter on where monarchy may be in fifty years. Not complete, and a bit more media trivia driven than I would like. Still worth it to find if you're into royalty. Four stars overall and recommended.

For the longer review, please go here:
http://www.epinions.com/review/Peter_...

[Margaret Sullivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was okay. I guess it achieved what it set out to do--that is, show how the modern European monarchies have survived into the 21st century--but it was a bit scattershot and ultimately not as informative as I would have liked.

Also, I read the ebook and I don't know if the ebook was made from an uncorrected proof or what, but it needed a thorough copy editing at minimum. I wonder if the same mistakes exist in the hard copy?

[Annie Booker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bit draggy in parts but overall a good and interesting read.

[Bianca Gemănaru · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cu siguranță, o carte pentru cei pasionați de monarhie, dar și cei care vor să se pună la curent, într-un fel accesibil și alert, cu monarhiile europene încă prezente și active. Monarhiile scandinave, cea olandeză sau belgiană nu sunt subiecte la care aș fi avut atât de multe surse și atât de bine comprimate înainte să citesc cartea lui Conradi. 4.7 steluțe.

[Ioana Savu · Rating 4 out of 5]

,Referitor la carte, în "Supravietuitorii este
prezentat viata publică si privată a Famililor Regale din Europa (destul de interesantă, dar în acelasi timp, controversată) De asemenea, autorul Peter Conradi este autorul cărti "Discursul Regelui" după care a fost
ealizat filmul Ccu acelaşi nume (dacă nu vreți să citiți carted, vă recomand mult filmul).

[Gusta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Geen toelichting nodig! Leuk om alle links tussen de verschillende vorstenhuizen te zien.

[tom woods · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good

[Justin Neville · Rating 4 out of 5]

More informative than particularly investigatory or analytical, this is simply a well-written and researched (albeit mostly from secondary sources) examination of Europe's surviving monarchies.

What makes it most interesting to the British reader is that it gives equal weight not just to the well-trodden ground of the British monarchy but also to the three Scandinavian monarchies and those of Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain, as well as the principality of Monaco (Liechtenstein gets only passing mentions).

And the book's structure, thematic rather than country-by-country is actually quite inspired. Rather than dealing with one monarchy in its entirety then jumping onto the next, his approach allows the reader to understand the issues at hand and, in particular, the challenges that a modern monarchy faces and to compare and contrast the different ways each country's system and royal members have responded to them.

He also gets the tone just right. It is neither overly reverential nor scurrilous.

On the downside, this makes it just a little bit unexciting and uncontroversial. Only in the very last chapter does he attempt to analyse why it is these monarchies that survived when so many others got swept away in the 20th century or earlier and to conjecture how likely they are survive beyond their current incumbents. More of this would have made for a meatier book.

It is also slightly marred by careless errors. Most of these are somewhat excusable typos, where the wrong country or person's name appears and a more thorough proof would have spotted it. It does not generally detract from the book and the reader is not generally misled. But quite how he manages to describe Charles II as Charles I's brother, not once but twice, is somewhat worrying.

[Razvan Zamfirescu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mi se pare inacceptabil ca intr-o carte despre monarhiile europene supravietuitoare sa intalnesc, din nou, figura extrem de enervanta a domnului Radu Duda. Nu inteleg de ce a considerat editura Corint ca trebuie sa includa un capitol absolut anost despre monarhia romana si de ce a considerat si Cioroianu, la randul lui, ca ar trebui sa pomeneasca acest individ. Imi vine din nou sa cred ca propagande ia dimensiuni grotesti. In plus, capitolul final despre regii Romaniei nu se ridica in nici un fel la nivelul cartii lui Conradi: este o simpla trecere in revista a unor informatii arhi-cunoscute.
Totusi, cartea ramane una de valore prin puterea ei de cuprindere. Conradi include orice: "barfe, smenuri, susanele", dar si informatii de interes istoric si stiintific. La fiecare pagina am avut tendinta de a scoate agenda si de a nota cate ceva, asa ca, pana la urma, m-am vazut nevoit sa cumpar cartea pentru ca, oricum, in momentul de fata nu exista pe piata nimic apropiat de Supravietuitorii ca nivel informational.
Din pacate, cartea se citeste greu. Scriitorul nu pare prea experimentat si adesea e plictisitor. In fapt, reuseste o performanta pe care cu greu mi-as fi putut-o inchipui: sa ofere extrem de multe informatii interesante si sa fie prin asta (sau totodata) cat se poate de sforaitor.
Per total, am ramas cu impresii amestecate, dar recomand (cu precautie!) cartea oricarui monarhist impatimit, dar si celor care urmaresc presa "imperiala" de scandal.

[Nate · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book about the recent history of the royal families. Interesting to see talk of their finances. The author made intriguing points about how the age of the monarch and their family stop the republican movement from gaining traction by stopping talk of monarchy as an institution by having the media focus on each member as am individual. The book also talked about some of the gossip, some untrue, and talked about each member of each family.

[Meghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good book, would have received 5 stars except for the organization. I loved that you got information on several other European dynasties besides just the British. It was a good overview. Now I wish Mr. Conradi would write an in depth look at each European house besides the British (but that's just my wish!). Overall a very good book, and a good read.

[Liza]

Enigszins kritisch maar vooral ook amusant is dit boekwerk over de historie van de Europese vorstenhuizen. De nadruk ligt op het Britse vorstenhuis maar ook de vorstenhuizen uit Nederland, België, Scandinavië en zelfs Monaco komen aan bod.

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty great overview of the remaining families of the European monarchy. Definitely a niche book, I enjoyed it because I enjoy reading about the royals. It has been updated but I read the non updated version.

[iMattLondon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant run through of Europes monarchies, the scandals and benefits of them...

[Katharina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book to do some research for my next book and though it was quite interesting, it was also confusing and some bits dragged a bit. In general though, quite interesting.

[The Duchess · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy read. Solid book if you are looking for history and how it shaped the monarchy.

[Andreea Ciubucă · Rating 5 out of 5]

Foarte faina cartea! Complexa si detaliata despre ce a mai ramas din monarhiile de dupa Cortina de fier si cum s-au schimbat acestea de-a lungul timpului.

[Michelle Wilson]

i enjoyed most of it...a little gossipy though....