In the preface to his book Vienna 1683, published in 1883, exactly 200 years after the Battle of Vienna, Malden writes: “The historical scholar will find nothing new in the following pages; but I have thought it worth while to tell to the general reader a story worth the telling, and to explain not only the details, but the wider bearings also, of a great crisis in European history, no satisfactory account of which exists, I believe, in English, and the two hundredth anniversary of which is now upon us”.
It is our firm belief that this book has greater relevance now than ever before. In a time of alarming historical illiteracy and rampant propagandisation of the past, this entertaining and informative account of the events of the siege of Vienna will provide the reader with information and details that are no longer taught by schools and universities across the western world.
Legatum Publishing has therefore decided to reprint this book in 2021, including a new foreword, biography and illustrations. We do this in order to provide the modern reader with a useful and concise tool to better understand the history and importance of 1683’s Battle of Vienna; a vital episode in the history of our continent. “Historia magistra vitae” (History is life’s teacher), so reads a famous Latin adage, which we hold to be true indeed. We must not forget our history, for without history there is no foundation for culture and without this, there is no future.
138 years have passed since this excellent work was first published and we believe that it is high time for it to receive a new edition. This is but one of many works that are at risk of fading into permanent obscurity and as they pass out of recognition, so too fades a collective sense of our history and roots as Europeans. It is our firm hope that with the republication of this work, we at Legatum Publishing will be making a contribution to the renewal of an awareness and appreciation among Europeans for their own distinct history and identity and that it might help to counteract the efforts of those forces that seek to deny and diminish this, our European legacy.