The Radetzky March Introduction by Alan Bance

"The Radetzky March," Joseph Roth's classic saga of the privileged von Trotta family, encompasses the entire social fabric of the Austro-Hungarian Empire just before World War I. The author's greatest achievement, "The Radetzky March" is an unparalleled portrait of a civilization in decline, and as such, a universal story for our times.

Joseph Roth was an Austrian novelist, essayist, journalist, and publisher who was born in 1894 and died in 1939. An outspoken critic of Hitler and militarism, he moved to Paris in 1933. Roth’s novels, though basically conservative, reflect political awareness and skepticism. His best-known novels are Job, concerning the struggle of Eastern European Jews, and The Radetzky March, written in 1933, which is an ironic portrait of the decline of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and is generally considered to be his masterpiece.