Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Habsburg Empire: A New History
    The Habsburg Empire: A New History
    The Habsburg Empire: A New History
    Audiobook18 hours

    The Habsburg Empire: A New History

    Written by Pieter M. Judson

    Narrated by Michael Page

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateJan 25, 2017
    ISBN9781515985068
    The Habsburg Empire: A New History

    Related to The Habsburg Empire

    Related audiobooks

    European History For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Yugoslavia

      Feb 27, 2020

      Yugoslavia
      4 min read

    • Article

      Chasing Votes On Foreign Soil

      Mar 28, 2024

      Chasing Votes On Foreign Soil
      6 min read

    • Article

      Jewish Life In Poland

      Dec 29, 2022

      How far back can we trace a Jewish community in Poland? The Jewish community in what is today Poland, which over time had slightly different borders, we can date back to about the 12th century. Some historians date it a little bit earlier, but it see

      3 min read

    • Article

      Hidden Histories

      Oct 27, 2022

      Hidden Histories
      2 min read

    • Article

      The One-State Delusion

      Nov 15, 2023

      The One-State Delusion
      7 min read

    • Article

      In Russia, A Grass-roots Bid To Expose Stalin's ‘Great Terror’

      Feb 12, 2018

      The nascent movement mirrors efforts in many countries – Japan, Germany, Rwanda, and the United States, to name a few – to confront elements of a dark past.

      10 min read

    • Article

      Hajdúszoboszló On My Mind

      Oct 29, 2020

      Hajdúszoboszló On My Mind
      6 min read

    • Article

      Commentary: Selective Outrage Won't Do

      May 10, 2018

      Nothing stays above politics forever, not even the Holocaust. Last week, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas was caught spewing anti-Semitic vitriol, including the notion that Jews were responsible for the Holocaust. The denunciations from American Jewi

      3 min read

    • Article

      An Old Beast Re-awoken, Anti-Semitism Stalks Europe, US Once More

      Apr 11, 2018

      Britain, France, the US, and Hungary have seen upticks in anti-Jewish invective and assaults in recent years. The resurgence of overt anti-Semitism stems from both an awakening of repressed prejudice and a byproduct of anti-Zionism.

      8 min read

    • Article

      The Chartists Had Succeeded?

      May 18, 2023

      Vic is a lecturer in History at the University of Durham, UK. Her chapter on Victorian Britain in the Routledge Companion to Working-Class Literature will be published in late 2023. Working people had gathered enormous momentum by the early part of t

      6 min read

    • Article

      ‘Zeitung’

      Dec 1, 2023

      ‘Zeitung’
      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Habsburg Empire

    4/5

    68 ratings2 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      Pieter Judson looks at the internal workings of the Habsburg Empire based in Vienna from the late 18th until its end after WWI. He focuses on attempts by the Habsburg's to modernize the empire amid continuing wars and its international decline. He looks at the devolution of power away from the monarchy because of the growth of nationalism and the demand for natural rights caused by the enlightenment and French Revolution.The main thrust of the book is the multi-national character of the empire and the dynasty's attempts to modernize its governance. This was a difficult period because the Habsburg's had traditional ruled (although that is a loose term) the Holy Roman Empire but then established the Austrian Empire after its dissolution during the Napoleonic wars. Then the revolutions of 1848 put new pressure on the dynasty, leading to a new constitution based on a strong bureaucracy. That was eventually overturned with a new constitution which included the official divisions between Hungary and Austria. This division, which was made for political reasons at the time, reflected the different traditions of the two regions (which encompassed a lot more than the modern countries) and the growing power of nationalism within the empire. The division, and later concessions to nationalists, made it difficult for the Austrian government to modernize because it limited its ability to mobilize the resources of its empire in a uniform way.Judson rarely discusses wars except in passing. He says that they happened and what their effects were, but glosses over all the details. He admits he will do this in the beginning of the book, but it is still a little frustration because he blames the wars of the 19th century for many of the economic and fiscal difficulties of the empire. He calls Austria's attempts in Crimea and against Prussia to be disastrous, but he doesn't say much about why the army couldn't do better, leaving the question hanging of whether this was a reflection of the internal difficulties of the empire. He does mention the issues of language, where conscripts were commanded in their own language even though German was used at higher levels. Other than that, it is hard to say what the connection was between internal and external problems.He finished the book with WWI and its aftermath. He doesn't see the war as the final nail in the coffin, but as a traumatic event that created entirely new problems on a new scale. I see his point, but since one of the major points of the entire book is about conflicting loyalties between nation and empire and then he shows how the war exacerbated that tension, the problems of the war seem to be similar to what the empire faced before hand.The final section is one of the most interesting. As he discusses the food shortages in the empire, he shows how it shifts many of the empire's subjects toward more loyalty toward the nation. There were rumors across the empire that other areas and nationalities were eating better and were exporting food, widening the divisions between the groups. When the war ended, the empire broke apart, but not in an orderly fashion. Each nationality tried to grab as much land as it could by force, regardless of whether the people living there belonged to their nation. The fundamental problem was that the peace treaty recognized national self-determination, but smaller ethnicities were swallowed up by larger ones and many people were left on the wrong side of the border, divided from the rest of their nation. Interestingly, the had the right to immigrate to their national territory, but many states, such as Germany and Italy, encouraged them to remain so that they would have cause to claim the territory in the future.This is a good book as far as it goes. It's main interest is the inner workings the empire and the politics of nation vs. empire. I found it interesting and informative. It is a little dry at times, but that is the nature of this kind of analysis. And I would have liked more on foreign affairs, as mentioned earlier.
    • 2/5
      The Habsburg Empire A New History, by Pieter M. Judson (read 6 Sep 2016) I have been fascinated by Austrian history ever since on 24 June 1945 I read Golden Fleece, by Bertita Harding--a novel-like life of Franz Josef and his wife Elizabeth. Books such The Fall of the House of Habsburg, by Edward Crankshaw (read 7 Dec 1969); Thunder at Twilght, by Frederic Morton (read 12 Oct 1996); The Eagles Die, by George R. Marek (read 28 Sep 2004); and A Nervous Splendor by Frederic Mortaon (read 28 May 2012) enthralled me. But this book by Judson seemed to be eager to take all the drama out of tthe history,making events seem as dry as dust. Much prose not telling what happened but expounding on why it happened fills this book. One paragraph suffices for the war in 1866. Crown Prince Rudolph's death is not mentioned at all. The book is full of argument as to reasons why some things happened--often not even telling what happened except by indirection. I am afraid I am not enough of a scholar to appreciate this book.