Just the Facts: Book Discussion Recap from May 26

Spring at last! Or is it summer? Either way, many thanks to the fourteen people who passed up an evening in their yard or a walk on the beach to attend the book discussion last night. Their presence, as always, was much appreciated.

The book discussed last night was the Assassination of the Archduke: Sarajevo 1914 and the romance that changed the world by Greg King and Susan Woolmans. Archduke Franz Ferdinand, due to the death of his cousin, was the heir apparent to the throne of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. When he fell in love and wanted to marry a Bohemian countess, it scandalized the court and the royal family. She was beneath him in rank and was deemed unsuitable. His uncle, the Emperor Franz Joseph, was appalled and furious and refused to sanction the marriage. Franz Ferdinand insisted and after much turmoil agreed to a morganatic marriage and had to endure constant insults and humiliations to his much loved wife. Years into their marriage and with three non-royal children, the couple made a state visit to Sarajevo. During the visit, Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were assassinated by a Serb nationalist. The result was World War I, the destruction of three empires and twenty-one million dead. Our discussion was very animated and covered the ethnic diversity of Europe and the current refugee crisis, why Sophie was considered unfit to be the heir’s wife, the role of alliances in the causes of World War I, Franz Ferdinand’s vision for the future of the empire, what Europe would have been like had the war not happened and whether there was a conspiracy involving Russia or the Austrian government to allow the assassination to take place. A good time was had by all.

Our next meeting will be on June 23, 2016. The book to be discussed, One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson, is available at the Circulation Desk. All are welcome.