Joseph II: Vol. II, Against the World, 1780-1790

It has been a long time. The first volume of Derek Beales’s biography of Joseph II took about as long to write as the Holy Roman Emperor’s 15-year co-regency with his mother Maria Theresa, the ruler of the Habsburg or Austrian Monarchy, in 1765–80.(1) The second volume occupied its author for more than twice the span of Joseph’s breathless sole reign in the Monarchy.(2) Much has changed since 1987. Despite being 200 pages shorter than its successor, volume I is actually the thicker of the two. It has reassuringly textured, off-white paper, rather than the smooth but thin white pages of the second volume, and it is stitched, rather than glued. The editors of the second volume have missed a few spaces and cross-references. ‘That’s progress...’ some may sigh. Presumably Maria Theresa, but not Joseph, would sigh with them. For it must be acknowledged that it helps the reader to have the illustrations at the relevant points in the text, rather than assembled into groups of plates. And the illustrations are as crisply reproduced as they are well chosen. We are told by the author, who exhibits exemplary courtesy in thanking and acknowledging the assistance and contributions of others, of the care that has been taken to ensure that the format of the second volume matches the first as closely as possible. On the whole, this is a handsome tome. We shall see how well it weathers the next 20 years and more, for this book will surely stand for many decades as the most authoritative work on its endlessly fascinating subject, and a gold standard of historical biography.