Edward Shawcross is a historian and teacher, who earned his PhD in history from University College London. He lives in London.
"Shawcross deftly reexamines the tragicomic rule of the Austrian
archduke Ferdinand Maximilian... In Shawcross's persuasive
retelling, Maximilian was a well-intentioned, if flawed,
Enlightenment ruler buffeted by the great forces of the
mid-nineteenth century."--Foreign Affairs
"Shawcross's fascinating debut is keenly attuned to the ironies and
tragedies that Maximilian faced in his ill-fated
task."--Guardian
"A majestic history... Shawcross's vivid details turn the emperor
into a character as ornate as the silk tapestries he imported. Such
attention to the minutiae--including Maximilian's hunt for rare
larvae--makes his demise all the more heartrending." --Daniel Rey,
The Spectator
"A superbly entertaining and well-researched account that sets a
new standard for histories of the doomed escapade."--Financial
Times
"Devouring Edward Shawcross's gripping book set in the 1860s, I was
screaming at the hapless Austrian Archduke Maximilian: 'Don't do
it!' ... [Shawcross] is an eloquent writer, good at showing both
sides of an argument." --Ysenda Maxtone Graham, The Daily Mail
"Edward Shawcross, a historian and first-time author, has a
terrific story to tell here and he tackles it with real brio and
narrative punch. This is a page-turning history of imperial hubris
and nemesis, deceit and delusion, love and betrayal on a grand
scale, written in an easy, lucid style." --Justin Marozzi, The
Sunday Times
"Here is a well-researched, ably written, consistently interesting,
and mercifully short book that deserves reading."--New
Criterion
"One virtue of Shawcross's book is his uncovering of the non-comic
aspects of Maximilian's story, almost all involving the true
villain, Napoleon III of France.... Shawcross's entertaining, just
occasionally over-detailed account leaves the emperor with some
dignity, weaving the warp of his ridiculousness with the darker
threads of his betrayal by his imperial allies in Europe." --Julian
Evans, The Daily Telegraph
"Shawcross... is especially good at describing the cultural gulf
between the imperial couple and their subjects and their adopted
realm... [P]owerfully and authoritatively, he places an episode
often dismissed as an ego-driven historical absurdity within the
deeper context of Mexico's history...This is history as at once
both tragedy and farce." --Paul Lay, The Times, Book of the Week
(UK)
"Mr. Shawcross, a British historian, creates a balanced and deeply
human portrait of the emperor...[a] deeply researched
narrative."--Wall Street Journal
"Crisply written and meticulously researched, Shawcross's engaging
book tells a lively story that will appeal to most history
buffs."--Library Journal
"'They are going to Mexico, which I cannot understand, ' wrote
Queen Victoria, after dining with the royal couple chosen to reign
over an unwilling nation that they had yet to see. No wonder she
was perplexed. The story of how Mexico, having been halved by its
aggressive neighbor to the north, was then invaded by one of
Europe's old empires, defies credulity and easy comprehension. Sure
enough, Edward Shawcross seems almost to make fiction of it, deftly
deploying his novelist's eye for page-turning narrative and
compellingly drawn characters. Yet as improbable as it may seem,
this was a very real and very tragic chapter in two extraordinary
histories--that of Mexico, and that of the arrogance of empire. If
only a copy of The Last Emperor of Mexico could be sent back in
time to the British queen. She would not have been able to put it
down, and, in the end, would surely have understood."
--Matthew Restall, author of When Montezuma Met Cortés
"France's doomed efforts to install an emperor in Mexico have long
been treated as a bizarre but minor sideshow to the Civil War in
the United States. In this engrossing, fast-paced book, Edward
Shawcross tells the story of the French Intervention in its own
right, giving a deeply human portrait of a feckless Austrian
Archduke Maximilian, who cares more for court etiquette than
imperial finances, and his ambitious wife Carlotta, who descends
into madness as their New World empire disintegrates. This is by
far the best book we have on Maximilian and Carlotta's ill-fated
rule in Mexico."
--Alice L. Baumgartner, author of South to Freedom
"Reads like a lush screenplay with a gaudy cast: a wandering court
of effete European exiles, blustering French generals, a ragtag
army of Mexican rebels, a US army distracted by civil war, and high
drama in Paris and London as a scheme to sit a Habsburg prince on
the throne of Mexico luridly unravels."
--Geoffrey Wawro, author of A Mad Catastrophe
"The story of Maximilian is one of the most compelling, absurd,
cynical, and revealing chapters in the history of Mexico and the
nineteenth-century Atlantic world. Edward Shawcross has marvelous
material to work with, and he handles it with insight and
panache."--H.W. Brands, author of The General vs. the President
"The story of Mexico's last emperor is an unhappy one, with an
almost inevitable conclusion. Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg was a
romantic dreamer, beguiled by the prospect of becoming emperor of
Mexico, lied to by Napoleon III of France, who promised him
unwavering military support, and tricked by Mexican politicians
into thinking he was a popular choice for ruler. After three years
of fireworks, grand balls, butterfly hunts, administrative chaos,
bedbugs, dysentery, treachery, and civil war, Maximilian was
captured and killed; his wife went mad. It is a story where no one
comes out well, but Edward Shawcross tells it with verve, weaving
together the big-power politics, fevered intrigue, and low villainy
behind Maximilian of Mexico's ill-starred venture."
--Martyn Rady, author of The Habsburgs
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