The Red Prince - The Secret Lives of a Habsburg Archduke

From the bestselling author of On Tyranny, the definitive biography of Wilhelm Von Habsburg, enigmatic and eccentric archduke of Austria.

“Not often does scholarly history soar and entrap like a fine historical novel, but here it does.” —Foreign Affairs

Wilhelm von Habsburg wore the court regalia of a Habsburg archduke, the simple suit of a Parisian exile, and every so often, a dress. After his youthful dream of a Ukrainian kingdom collapsed following the First World War, Wilhelm was, by turns, an ally of German imperialists, a notorious French lover, an angry Austrian monarchist, a calm opponent of Hitler, and finally a spy against Stalin.

In The Red Prince, acclaimed historian Timothy Snyder offers an indelible portrait of a man who embodied the many contradictions of twentieth-century Europe; a figure whose journeys spanned the continent and whose politics and ambitions united the old order of empire with the new politics of the nation-state.