Franz Joseph Biden & That Late-Empire Vibe
It's Not the Age, It's the Infirmity.
On Sunday, April 17, 1910, the octogenerian emperor of Austria-Hungary, Franz Joseph, received Theodore Roosevelt. TR, memorably described as “a steam engine in trousers,” had relinquished the American presidency in the prior year.
Roosevelt’s inimitable public persona was a faithful representation of the spectacular rise of the United States. Franz Jose…