Richard Bassett‘s new book, MARIA THERESA: EMPRESS: The Making of the Austrian Enlightenment, is published by Yale University Press on 25 February 2025. 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.
“From the Empress’s taste for marzipan to her collections of porcelain, and from her administrative reforms to her diplomatic triumphs, Richard Bassett gives a comprehensive biography of the Habsburg monarch Maria Theresa, which reaches in its scope from Transylvania and the Tyrol to Trieste and the Low Countries. Eighteenth-century Europe has three ruling “greats” – Peter and Catherine of Russia, and Frederick the Great of Prussia. There is a compelling case for a Maria Theresa the Great, and Richard Bassett makes it with assurance, zest and scholarly rigour.” Martyn Rady, author of THE MIDDLE KINGDOMS
“An absolute tour de force.” Nancy M. Wingfield