The Crossroads of Civilization
A History of Vienna

This wasn't really a history of Vienna as a city and more a broad history of Vienna and Austria. It went into great detail over all of the different European battles over centuries which did not interest me in the slightest. If you like that kind of thing you'll like this book, if you want a history......more

The thing with history books is if you write a book like our text books in school- it is NOT interesting ! Not fun! I don’t only want facts in a chronological order. I want opinions and inferences and connections between events across timelines and regions. I thought it wasn’t enough in this book. T......more

Beginning with the establishment of a Roman Legion (Vindabona) at the delta of the Danube after it turns south in central Europe. It was built to protect the Empire from the Germanic tribes that lived north of the river, though much of the legion was made up of Celtic forces from England, Ireland an......more

After a bit of an uneven start where Robertson rockets through hundreds of years of history in very few pages, this was a fascinating read after returning from a trip to Vienna. Robertson makes a convincing case for Vienna as essentially an international capitol, a neutral place where opposing power......more

This was a very well written general introduction to the history of Vienna I read this book in anticipation of a planned trip there later this month. In my opinion, it was just the right amount of information to make my visit more meaningful. My only complaint is the last chapter, discussing the mos......more