Short Synopsis
In a panoramic and pioneering reappraisal, Pieter M. Judson shows why the Habsburg Empire mattered so much, for so long, to millions of Central Europeans.

Full Synopsis
In a panoramic and pioneering reappraisal, Pieter M. Judson shows why the Habsburg Empire mattered so much, for so long, to millions of Central Europeans.

Rejecting fragmented histories of nations in the making, this bold revision surveys the shared institutions that bridged difference and distance to bring stability and meaning to the far-flung empire. By supporting new schools, law courts, and railroads, along with scientific and artistic advances, the Habsburg monarchs sought to anchor their authority in the cultures and economies of Central Europe. A rising standard of living throughout the empire deepened the legitimacy of Habsburg rule, as citizens learned to use the empire's administrative machinery to their local advantage. Nationalists developed distinctive ideas about cultural difference in the context of imperial institutions, yet all of them claimed the Habsburg state as their empire.

The empire's creative solutions to governing its many lands and peoples—as well as the intractable problems it could not solve—left an enduring imprint on its successor states in Central Europe. Its lessons remain no less important today.

"Judson's book addresses the question of how the Habsburg Empire worked and how much it has to teach the world about the dynamics of shared citizenship and the myriad ways people identify themselves politically." ---Library Journal Audio Review

"[A] subtly argued work of deep scholarship . . . A nuanced scholarly reappraisal of a significant European empire." ---Kirkus

"A masterpiece of historical rethinking by one of the great Habsburg historians of our age." ---Larry Wolff, author of The Idea of Galicia

"Strongly revisionist and effortlessly wide-ranging, Judson's book offers a strikingly original interpretation of Austria-Hungary as an empire rather than a collection of hostile national groups." ---Robert Nemes, author of Another Hungary

"Judson forever banishes images of the Habsburg Empire as a decrepit and declining anachronism. This is the history we have been waiting for since the empire disappeared from Europe's map." ---Tara Zahra, author of The Great Departure