Maria Theresa, Empress : the making of the Austrian Enlightenment
Bassett, Richard (Historian)2025
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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 Drawing on hitherto unpublished sources, Bassett reveals her keen sense of moderation and tolerance, innovative ideas on free trade and finance, and studied reluctance to resort to policies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.
Main title:
Maria Theresa, Empress : the making of the Austrian Enlightenment / Richard Bassett.
Author:
Imprint:
New Haven : Yale University Press, [2025]New Haven : Yale University Press, [2025]
Collation:
xiv, 502 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm
Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:
9780300243987 (hbk)
Dewey class:
920 MAR
Language:
English
Subject:
BRN:
3040547