This book charts the history of the last fifty years of the Austro-Hungarian Empire from 1867 to 1918. it reveals that the Habsburg Monarchy, though not in a healthy state before 1914, was not in fact doomed to collapse. The author examines foreign and domestic policies and reveals the weaknesses inherent in the Empire.He also shows how the Austro-Hungarian Empire attempted to satisfy the claims of eleven distinct national groups.
This book charts the history of the last fifty years of the Austro-Hungarian Empire from 1867 to 1918. it reveals that the Habsburg Monarchy, though not in a healthy state before 1914, was not in fact doomed to collapse. The author examines foreign and domestic policies and reveals the weaknesses inherent in the Empire.He also shows how the Austro-Hungarian Empire attempted to satisfy the claims of eleven distinct national groups.
At the end of the nineteenth century, Austro-Hungarian society was undergoing a significant re-evaluation of gender roles and identities. Debates on these issues revealed deep anxieties within the multi-ethnic empire that did not resolve themselves with its dissolution in 1918. The concepts of gender and modernity were modified by the various regimes that ruled the empire's successor states in the twentieth century and have been redefined again in the post-Communist period, but the Habsburg Monarchy's influence on gender and modernity in Central Europe is still palpable. --
The emergence of central Europe and the Balkans as a major area of interest and international concern in post-Cold War Europe have given the fall of the Habsburg Empire and the consequences of that fall considerable contemporary resonance. The Empire was an experiment in multi-national politics, and how different ethnic and religious groups live or do not live together is very much what this book is about. The eight essays in this volume seek to unravel the complexities of the final twenty years of Austria-Hungary and its eventual disintegration, tackling from different angles the political, social and international challenges to the Empire's existence. The book successfully fills a gap in the market between expensive textbooks and very specialist articles and monographs and as such will appeal both to students and to the general reader interested in the Habsburgs and the Great War. From reviews of the first edition: 'The essays provide new insights into the question of Habsburg endurance, while offering perceptive suggestions about its ultimate collapse . . . [The book] represents a valuable attempt to publish new research and new perspectives on familiar questions. Carefully edited and with an excellent set of maps and a solid bibliography, the book offers students and specialists alike fresh thoughts about the Habsburg Monarchy, the Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia.' - Samuel R. Williamson, The International History Review
A masterful account of the Hapsburg Empire's bumbling entrance into World War I, and its rapid collapse on the Eastern Front The Austro-Hungarian army that attacked Russia and Serbia in August 1914 had a glorious past but a pitiful present. Speaking a mystifying array of languages and lugging obsolete weapons, the Habsburg troops were hopelessly unprepared for the industrialized warfare that would shortly consume Europe. As prizewinning historian Geoffrey Wawro explains in A Mad Catastrophe, the disorganization of these doomed conscripts perfectly mirrored Austria-Hungary itself. For years, the Empire had been rotting from within, hollowed out by complacency and corruption at the highest levels. When Germany goaded Austria into starting the world war, the Empire's profound political and military weaknesses were exposed. By the end of 1914, the Austro-Hungarian army lay in ruins and the course of the war seemed all but decided. Reconstructing the climax of the Austrian campaign in gripping detail, A Mad Catastrophe is a riveting account of how Austria-Hungary plunged the West into a tragic and unnecessary war.
A EuropeNow Editor’s Pick A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year “Pieter M. Judson’s book informs and stimulates. If his account of Habsburg achievements, especially in the 18th century, is rather starry-eyed, it is a welcome corrective to the black legend usually presented. Lucid, elegant, full of surprising and illuminating details, it can be warmly recommended to anyone with an interest in modern European history.” —Tim Blanning, Wall Street Journal “This is an engaging reappraisal of the empire whose legacy, a century after its collapse in 1918, still resonates across the nation-states that replaced it in central Europe. Judson rejects conventional depictions of the Habsburg empire as a hopelessly dysfunctional assemblage of squabbling nationalities and stresses its achievements in law, administration, science and the arts.” —Tony Barber, Financial Times “Spectacularly revisionist... Judson argues that...the empire was a force for progress and modernity... This is a bold and refreshing book... Judson does much to destroy the picture of an ossified regime and state.” —A. W. Purdue, Times Higher Education “Judson’s reflections on nations, states and institutions are of broader interest, not least in the current debate on the future of the European Union after Brexit.” —Annabelle Chapman, Prospect
The historic myths of a people/nation usually play an important role in the creation and consolidation of the basic concepts from which the self-image of that nation derives. These concepts include not only images of the nation itself, but also images of other peoples. Although the construction of ethnic stereotypes during the "long" nineteenth century initially had other functions than simply the homogenization of the particular culture and the exclusion of "others" from the public sphere, the evaluation of peoples according to criteria that included "level of civilization" yielded "rankings" of ethnic groups within the Habsburg Monarchy. That provided the basis for later, more divisive ethnic characterizations of exclusive nationalism, as addressed in this volume that examines the roots and results of ethnic, nationalist, and racial conflict in the region from a variety of historical and theoretical perspectives.
The Oxford Handbook of the Ends of Empire offers the most comprehensive treatment of the causes, course, and consequences of the collapse of empires in the twentieth century. The volume's contributors convey the global reach of decolonization, analysing the ways in which European, Asian, and African empires disintegrated over the past century.
