The Last Emperor of Mexico

The Dramatic Story of the Habsburg Archduke Who Created a Kingdom in the New World

By: Edward Shawcross

Narrated by: Gustavo Rex

The true operatic tragedy of Maximilian and Carlota, the European aristocrats who stumbled into power in Mexico - and faced bloody consequences.

In the 1860s, Napoleon III, intent on curbing the rise of American imperialism, persuaded a young Austrian archduke and a Belgian princess to leave Europe and become the emperor and empress of Mexico. They and their entourage arrived in a Mexico ruled by terror, where revolutionary fervor was barely suppressed by French troops. When the United States, now clear of its own Civil War, aided the rebels in pushing back Maximilian’s imperial soldiers, the French army withdrew, abandoning the young couple. The regime fell apart. Maximilian was executed by a firing squad and Carlota, secluded in a Belgian castle, descended into madness.

Assiduously researched and vividly told, The Last Emperor of Mexico is a dramatic story of European hubris, imperialist aspirations clashing with revolutionary fervor, and the Old World breaking from the New.

©2021 Basic Books (P)2021 Basic Books

Critic reviews

“Mr. Shawcross, a British historian, creates a balanced and deeply human portrait of the emperor…[a] deeply researched narrative.” (Wall Street Journal)

“Crisply written and meticulously researched, Shawcross’s engaging book tells a lively story that will appeal to most history buffs.” (Library Journal)

“The story of Maximilian is one of the most compelling, absurd, cynical, and revealing chapters in the history of Mexico and the nineteenth-century Atlantic world. Edward Shawcross has marvelous material to work with, and he handles it with insight and panache.” (H.W. Brands, author of The General vs. the President)

In depth and too long for my needs

I only wanted some information about Maximilian (and Carlota), whose short reign as Emperor of Mexico, was spent as a resident of Chapultepec in Mexico City, all because we once toured that castle. This book had way more than I wanted or needed. Because I purchased it too long ago, it could not be returned, I listened to it with just half an ear. I could only give it a couple of stars based on my needs.

As an audiobook, the book was difficult to listen to. I rarely recognized the names and places, so struggled to find information to figure out the place or the person mentioned, since I could not guess the spellings.

Otherwise, I did fill my original curiosity.

The narrator was good, the book is probably great for a historian, which I am not.

Great writing, great story

Well done, Edward Shawcross! I've been studying Latin America for nearly two decades now, and I found this to be a wonderfully balanced and eloquently written history of a poorly understood but devilishly important moment in time, relevant not only to Mexico but also to all of the Americas and Europe as well. A joy to read.

Informative

Informative, but narration annoying. Reader used phony sounding “voices” when reading quotes. Also exaggerated pronunciations of foreign names.

Great book!

A very interesting recount of a very interesting character. The history behind Maximilian’s and Carlota is presented in a very engaging form in this book. Strongly recommended.

Interesting & informative historical account

The book is well written with interesting and informative historical accounts. The narrator was fine, but I found his imitation of female voices unnecessary and off putting.

Excellent

With a clear voice, the drama of the Mexican Emperor is related. Expertly roots the rise of the empire in the 19th century

Amazing forgotten history.

This story plays out like a screenplay, in fact it would make a great movie if ever put to film. As a history buff I knew a LITTLE about this crazy story, but the details here are nearly hard to believe. This book filled in the details to an amazing degree, I learned so much more than I'd ever heard before about this incredible gamble.

Reader was perfect.

Every Californian needs to know this story. I lived in Mexico City for 5 years in the 1970s an knew nothing of this history. Perfectly read. Bravo

Great book on understudied topic; Poor narrator

I greatly appreciated this detailed and engaging portraits of the Second Mexican Empire, a fascinating historical topic that one almost never sees covered, or if covered only cursorily so.

However, the narrator has a robotic off putting Casanova and he takes odd breaks in narration in seemingly the middle of paragraphs or sentences. His cadence is uniform almost without regard to the mood of tone of a certain passage.

Loved it!

I really enjoyed it and kept listening as much as I could. My only concern was the narrator imitating women’s voices which didn’t make sense at all. I don’t read a book and then switch my own voice to make me think it’s a woman speaking…