Richard Bassett

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 Drawing on hitherto unpublished sources, Bassett reveals her keen sense of moderation and tolerance, innovative ideas on free trade and finance, and studied reluctance to resort to policies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 modernisation 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.

The biography of Guido Schmidt, Austria's last foreign minister before the Anschluss and Nazi takeover. Drawing on unpublished sources and family archives.

'With these vivid, wistful memoirs, he joins the great chroniclers of Europe - the Prousts, Zweigs, Lampedusas, Leigh-Fermors and Bassanis - and shows how some of the things those writers loved persisted as late as 1989.' (Economist)Selected as a Book of the Year in the TLS and SpectatorIn 1979 Richard Bassett set out on a series of adventures and encounters in central Europe which allowed him to savour the last embers of the cosmopolitan old Hapsburg lands and gave him a ringside seat at the fall of another ancien regime, that of communist rule. From Trieste to Prague and Vienna to Warsaw, fading aristocrats, charming gangsters, fractious diplomats and glamorous informants provided him with an unexpected counterpoint to the austerities of life along the Iron Curtain, first as a professional musician and then as a foreign correspondent. The book shows us familiar events and places from unusual vantage points: dilapidated mansions and boarding-houses, train carriages and cafes, where the game of espionage between east and west is often set. There are unexpected encounters with Shirley Temple, Fitzroy Maclean, Lech Walesa and the last Empress of Austria. Bassett finds himself at the funeral of King Nicola of Montenegro in Cetinje, plays bridge with the last man alive to have been decorated by the Austrian Emperor Franz-Josef and watches the KGB representative in Prague bestowing the last rites on the Soviet empire in Europe. Music and painting, architecture and landscape, food and wine, friendship and history run through the book. The author is lucky, observant and leans romantically towards the values of an older age. He brilliantly conjures the time, the people he meets, and Mitteleuropa in one of the pivotal decades of its history.

Geotechnical instrumentation is used for installation, monitoring and assessment on any sizeable project, particularly in urban areas, and is used for recording, controlled remedial work, and safety. This unique and up-to-date book deals with the conceptual philosophy behind the use of instruments, and then systematically covers their practical use. It is divided into displacement dominated systems and stress recording systems. The limitations are discussed and the theoretical background for data assessment and presentation are covered in some detail, with some relevant background material in theoretical soil mechanics. Relevant advanced electronic techniques such as laser scanning in surveying and fibre-optics are also included and communication and data recovery systems are discussed. This book is written for senior designers, consulting engineers, and major contractors who need a major introduction to the general purpose, availability, and analysis of field instruments before details of their own project can be progressed, and it serves as a textbook to any specialist geotechnical MSc or professional seminar course in which instrumentation forms a major part.

The definitive history of Austria’s multinational army and its immense role during three centuries of European military history Among the finest examples of deeply researched and colorfully written military history, Richard Bassett’s For God and Kaiser is a major account of the Habsburg army told for the first time in English. Bassett shows how the Imperial Austrian Army, time and again, was a decisive factor in the story of Europe, the balance of international power, and the defense of Christendom. Moreover it was the first pan-European army made up of different nationalities and faiths, counting among its soldiers not only Christians but also Muslims and Jews. Bassett tours some of the most important campaigns and battles in modern European military history, from the seventeenth century through World War I. He details technical and social developments that coincided with the army’s story and provides fascinating portraits of the great military leaders as well as noteworthy figures of lesser renown. Departing from conventional assessments of the Habsburg army as ineffective, outdated, and repeatedly inadequate, the author argues that it was a uniquely cohesive and formidable fighting force, in many respects one of the glories of the old Europe.

Geotechnical instrumentation is used for installation, monitoring and assessment on any sizeable project, particularly in urban areas, and is used for recording, controlled remedial work, and safety. This unique and up-to-date book deals with the conceptual philosophy behind the use of instruments, and then systematically covers their practical use. It is divided into displacement dominated systems and stress recording systems. The limitations are discussed and the theoretical background for data assessment and presentation are covered in some detail, with some relevant background material in theoretical soil mechanics. Relevant advanced electronic techniques such as laser scanning in surveying and fibre-optics are also included and communication and data recovery systems are discussed. This book is written for senior designers, consulting engineers, and major contractors who need a major introduction to the general purpose, availability, and analysis of field instruments before details of their own project can be progressed, and it serves as a textbook to any specialist geotechnical MSc or professional seminar course in which instrumentation forms a major part.

How Hitler's spy chief sabotaged the German war effort

In einer bemerkenswerten und faszinierenden wahren Spionagegeschichte deckt Richard Bassett auf, wie die geheimdienstliche Tatigkeit des Admirals Wilhelm Canaris den Lauf des Zweiten Weltkriegs verandert hat. Ina Haag, enge Mitarbeiterin von Wilhelm Canaris und letzte lebende Zeitzeugin, erzahlt in ihrem Vorwort uber die Arbeit mit dem legendaren Admiral und daruber, wie sie Pariser Juden Passe aushandigte. Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, der Chef der deutschen Abwehr, wurde von seinen russischen Gegenspielern als der gefahrlichste Spion der Welt bezeichnet. Seine durch die kaiserliche deutsche Marine gepragte Loyalitat galt jedoch einem alteren Deutschland, nicht der aggressiven, rassistischen Herrschaft von Adolf Hitler. Im Zuge der Verschworung vom 20. Juli 1944 wurde Canaris verhaftet und von den Nationalsozialisten in der letzten Kriegswoche hingerichtet. Das Ausmass seiner Beteiligung am Attentat auf Hitler blieb jedoch im Dunkeln; es wurde behauptet, dass er zuvor mehrmals Bemuhungen zur Beseitigung von Hitler koordiniert, ja sogar versucht hatte, einen Kompromissfrieden mit den Briten auszuhandeln. Richard Bassett geht intensiv auf Canaris' Beziehung zu Grossbritannien ein. Er beschreibt die Beweggrunde Chamberlains, 1938 den Flug zu Hitler anzutreten und wirft ein neues Licht auf die Munchner Krise, die grosste Tragodie der europaischen Diplomatie im 20. Jahrhundert. Auch das Verhaltnis zwischen Stalin und Hitler Ende 1943 wird einer genauen Analyse unterzogen. Das komplexe Beziehungsgeflecht der Spionage innerhalb Deutschlands, aber auch die internationalen Kontakte, sogar zu gegnerischen Landern, werden dargelegt. Der Autor untersucht detailliert die Dynamik von Canaris' Charakter, dessen Widerspruche und dessen Komplexitat.