The Enemy at the Gate

"As Andrew Wheatcroft brilliantly shows in The Enemy at the Gate, the skirmishes and the pitched battles that raged for centuries between Habsburgs and Ottomans, and their numerous vassals on both sides, represented not so much a 'clash of civilizations' as a collision of empires.... [H]is narrative is thrilling as well as thoughtful, a rare combination."

"Wheatcroft offers a riveting account of the slow, methodical Ottoman approach to Vienna.... [A] masterful account of the siege and battle."

"There are two stories here worth telling and well told: the blood-and-thunder tale of the heroic defense of Vienna against the Ottomans in 1683, the surge in morale after the Habsburg victory, and the war to recover Hungary and the Balkans from the Turks. The other story is of the obsessive fear and hatred of the Turks in Christian central Europe, exorcised by the Habsburg victory at Vienna, turning to revenge and reconquest led first by Duke Charles of Lorraine, then by the legendary Prince Eugene of Savoy, ending in exhausted and bankrupt stability."

"[A] riveting narrative, Andrew Wheatcroft's The Enemy at the Gate...tells the story of the final Habsburg-Ottoman showdown at the gates of Vienna in 1683, one of the genuine turning points in European history."