Austria, Hungary, and the Habsburgs : essays on Central Europe, c.1683-1867 / R.J.W. Evans.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Evans, R. J. W. (Robert John Weston), 1943-

Contributor:

Class of 1953 Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Habsburg, House of.

Historiography.

Europe, Central--History.

Europe, Central.

Central Europe.

History.

Austria--Historiography.

Austria.

Hungary--Historiography.

Hungary.

Physical Description:

xvii, 337 pages : maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2006.

Summary:

This book addresses a number of interrelated themes over two hundred years and more in the political, religious, cultural, and social history of a broad but often neglected swathe of the European continent. It seeks-against the grain of conventional presentations-to apprehend the era from the later seventeenth to the later nineteenth century as a whole, and to demonstrate continuities, as well as casting light on key aspects of the evolution towards modern statehood and national awareness in Central Europe, and the crises of ancien-regime structures there in the face of new challenges at home and abroad.

Each of the essays-some previously published, and others available for the first time in English-are intended to be free-standing and accessible on its own; but they are also designed to fit together and to demonstrate linkages and common ground. Much attention is devoted to the Austrian or Habsburg lands, especially the interplay of the main territories which comprised them. A central issue here is the evolution of the kingdom of Hungary, from its full acquisition by the Habsburgs at the beginning of the period to the emergence of the dual Austro-Hungarian Monarchy at the end. But the chapters also range more broadly, both territorially and chronologically.

Though much of the scholarship underpinning this masterly exploration may be unfamiliar to many readers, this is an elegantly written and stimulating collection, which reflects the exploratory and individual character of the essay as a genre.

Contents:

1 The Habsburgs and Central Europe, 1683-1723 3

Part I Absolutist Enlightenment

2 Maria Theresa and Hungary 17

3 The Origins of Enlightenment in the Habsburg Lands 36

4 Culture and Authority in Central Europe, 1683-1806 56

5 The Habsburg Monarchy and Bohemia, 1526-1848 75

Part II The Rise of Nations

6 Nationality in East-Central Europe: Perception and Definition before 1848 101

7 Frontiers and National Identities in Central-European History 114

8 Joseph II and Nationality in the Habsburg Lands 134

9 Religion and Nation in Hungary, 1790-1849 147

Part III Regions and Their Interplay

10 The Habsburgs and the Hungarian Problem, 1790-1848 173

11 Empire and Kingdoms: Hungary and Bohemia in the Monarchy, 1741-1871 193

12 The Transylvanian Saxons: A German Diaspora 209

13 Hungary and the German Lands in the Nineteenth Century 228

Part IV The Revolution and Beyond

14 Hungary in the Habsburg Monarchy 1840-67: A Study of Perceptions 245

15 From Confederation to Compromise: The Austrian Experiment, 1849-67 266

16 Central Europe: The History of An Idea 293.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [305]-316) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Class of 1953 Fund.

ISBN:

0199281440

OCLC:

70258980

Publisher Number:

9780199281442