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Maria Theresa: Empress: The Making of the Austrian Enlightenment
A major new biography of Maria Theresa, the formidable Habsburg Empress
Maria Theresa was the single most powerful woman in eighteenth-century Europe. At the age of just twenty-three she succeeded to the Habsburg domains only to find them contested by almost every power in Europe. Over the next forty years, she became a fierce leader and opponent, as well as a devoted wife and mother to sixteen children.
In this engrossing biography, Richard Bassett traces Maria Theresa's life and complex legacy. Drawing on hitherto unpublished sources, Bassett reveals her keen sense of moderation and tolerance, innovative ideas on free trade and finance, and studied reluctance to resort to policies of territorial expansion. Yet Maria Theresa's modernization policies were not entirely progressive. Antisemitism and an enduring suspicion of Protestantism greatly affected the lives of her subjects.
This is a gripping study of one of the world's most influential leaders, revealing how Maria Theresa confounded gendered expectations and left a lasting mark on Europe.
Maria Theresa was the single most powerful woman in eighteenth-century Europe. At the age of just twenty-three she succeeded to the Habsburg domains only to find them contested by almost every power in Europe. Over the next forty years, she became a fierce leader and opponent, as well as a devoted wife and mother to sixteen children.
In this engrossing biography, Richard Bassett traces Maria Theresa's life and complex legacy. Drawing on hitherto unpublished sources, Bassett reveals her keen sense of moderation and tolerance, innovative ideas on free trade and finance, and studied reluctance to resort to policies of territorial expansion. Yet Maria Theresa's modernization policies were not entirely progressive. Antisemitism and an enduring suspicion of Protestantism greatly affected the lives of her subjects.
This is a gripping study of one of the world's most influential leaders, revealing how Maria Theresa confounded gendered expectations and left a lasting mark on Europe.
520 pages, Hardcover
Published February 25, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 21, 2025
4.3 stars
March 21, 2025
This is not a biography of Empress Maria Theresa. It's an examination of her policies and the men around her who enacted those policies. Divided into 3 sections, only the first direcrly considers the empress's life, the rest of the book looks at her impact on the world around her, from her children to her territories to the arts.
Bassett does a good job cutting through accumlated years of opinions, keeping the focus on how Maria Theresa was considered in her time and countries over how she has since been written. He sets her back into her proper context, discussing how shifting worldviews have changed opinion on her. But he is not subtle - everything is spelled out again and again; nothing is left for the reader to consider on their own. Bassett has little regard for Joseph II, always finding him wanting; while I mostly agree with him, it does get annoying rereading the same opinions over and over.
The biggest problem with the book, though, is Bassett's habit of sprinkling in words of another language into sentences without translation. Some I was able to figure out with context but most needed to be translated - and some of those translations didn't make much sense. It would be one thing if it was an obscure, hard to translate term - but most of them were not. It came off as pretentious, the author showing off his language skills over readability. He did back off after the biography section ended, providing translations in the influences sections.
Bassett does a good job cutting through accumlated years of opinions, keeping the focus on how Maria Theresa was considered in her time and countries over how she has since been written. He sets her back into her proper context, discussing how shifting worldviews have changed opinion on her. But he is not subtle - everything is spelled out again and again; nothing is left for the reader to consider on their own. Bassett has little regard for Joseph II, always finding him wanting; while I mostly agree with him, it does get annoying rereading the same opinions over and over.
The biggest problem with the book, though, is Bassett's habit of sprinkling in words of another language into sentences without translation. Some I was able to figure out with context but most needed to be translated - and some of those translations didn't make much sense. It would be one thing if it was an obscure, hard to translate term - but most of them were not. It came off as pretentious, the author showing off his language skills over readability. He did back off after the biography section ended, providing translations in the influences sections.
February 5, 2026
I love Non fiction, I love biographies, I love stories about strong women in history, and though it is a packed full of information, I thought this book was boring!!! (and I am rarely bored) I listen to a lot of audio books an a lot of them non fiction, and rarely do I drift off.. but I was in a whole lot of "Who cares" It was like reading a textbook, no warmth, humor, sadness, just plain old vanilla blah.
I kept venting to my AI chat how I thought this book was sooooo boring and it was like Maria Theresa, boring? Never she was , Empress of the Roman Empire mother of 16, pregnant most of her adult life, polices, changes. ground breaking women / I reply to A.i. I know that I what I was expecting a story of the life of an incredible woman, and it wasn't more that the first section I was like, "Wow Can't a put the audio to 5x"
The narrator was good and her German and French Pronunciations were great but I have read more interesting things a page or two long about a no body no one has ever heard of lady in my communities history and her story was captivated She wasn't a person on a page, she was alive, had struggles, hard times, over came, suffered had joy. Maria Theresa. a Major Women a Major world leader, I should have been, "OMG she was awesome" and all I can say is "hum, that's informative too bad it is boring"
I can sit through a 20 hours Great Courses class about European History and the 20 hours are over and I am like "What !we are done?" IN fact there were many 20 hour courses (at 1.5 speed) I listend to twice because it was do interesting. It was these classes thare are the ones that made me say "Hey I know nothing of Hapsburg I want to learn more". All I knew was that my sister is named after Marie Antoinette and brush strokes of the French Revolution. and Marie Antoinette wasn't even her favorite daughter.
You can hate me but this book makes me think Maria Theresa was nothing more than a housewife with some power in a time when women had little power. and I am told by other sources that she was amazing. So I was disappointed. I saw a little bit of her humanity but I guess I wanted to know more about HER as much as I wanted to know about her a a ruler.
Why I didn't give it lower stars for disliking it so much. I will give the author credit for a TON of research. I mean a ton. As someone that does A Lot of research, I get it. It just wasn't put together in a way that was interesting for me.
Marie Theresa had 16 kids, and..... her husband constantly cheated on her....and. I would have loved to see her as a person, emotions, fears, hopes, dream instead of this Hapsburg chick from the 1700s. And maybe I am right, maybe this is supposed to be a textbook type book not a Non fiction narrative, but I guess I have really enjoyed a little non fiction narrative and glitter in a story More of a story than "this happened in 1780 the end." I can not even express how much I wanted to learn and like this book.
I kept venting to my AI chat how I thought this book was sooooo boring and it was like Maria Theresa, boring? Never she was , Empress of the Roman Empire mother of 16, pregnant most of her adult life, polices, changes. ground breaking women / I reply to A.i. I know that I what I was expecting a story of the life of an incredible woman, and it wasn't more that the first section I was like, "Wow Can't a put the audio to 5x"
The narrator was good and her German and French Pronunciations were great but I have read more interesting things a page or two long about a no body no one has ever heard of lady in my communities history and her story was captivated She wasn't a person on a page, she was alive, had struggles, hard times, over came, suffered had joy. Maria Theresa. a Major Women a Major world leader, I should have been, "OMG she was awesome" and all I can say is "hum, that's informative too bad it is boring"
I can sit through a 20 hours Great Courses class about European History and the 20 hours are over and I am like "What !we are done?" IN fact there were many 20 hour courses (at 1.5 speed) I listend to twice because it was do interesting. It was these classes thare are the ones that made me say "Hey I know nothing of Hapsburg I want to learn more". All I knew was that my sister is named after Marie Antoinette and brush strokes of the French Revolution. and Marie Antoinette wasn't even her favorite daughter.
You can hate me but this book makes me think Maria Theresa was nothing more than a housewife with some power in a time when women had little power. and I am told by other sources that she was amazing. So I was disappointed. I saw a little bit of her humanity but I guess I wanted to know more about HER as much as I wanted to know about her a a ruler.
Why I didn't give it lower stars for disliking it so much. I will give the author credit for a TON of research. I mean a ton. As someone that does A Lot of research, I get it. It just wasn't put together in a way that was interesting for me.
Marie Theresa had 16 kids, and..... her husband constantly cheated on her....and. I would have loved to see her as a person, emotions, fears, hopes, dream instead of this Hapsburg chick from the 1700s. And maybe I am right, maybe this is supposed to be a textbook type book not a Non fiction narrative, but I guess I have really enjoyed a little non fiction narrative and glitter in a story More of a story than "this happened in 1780 the end." I can not even express how much I wanted to learn and like this book.
June 16, 2025
Comprehensive
March 3, 2026
Most interesting indeed.
May 22, 2026
The definitive book on her reign
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews