Maria Theresa : the making of the Austrian Enlightenment / Richard Bassett.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bassett, Richard, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria, 1717-1780.

Maria Theresa.

Austria--Kings and rulers--Biography.

Austria.

Austria--History--Maria Theresa, 1740-1780.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xvi, 502 pages)

Place of Publication:

New Haven, Connecticut : Yale University Press, [2025]

Summary:

A major new biography of Maria Theresa, the formidable Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa was the single most powerful woman in eighteenth-century Europe. At the age of just twenty-three she succeeded to the Habsburg domains only to find them contested by almost every power in Europe. Over the next forty years, she became a fierce leader and opponent, as well as a devoted wife and mother to sixteen children. In this engrossing biography, Richard Bassett traces Maria Theresa’s life and complex legacy. Drawing on hitherto unpublished sources, Bassett reveals her keen sense of moderation and tolerance, innovative ideas on free trade and finance, and studied reluctance to resort to policies of territorial expansion. Yet Maria Theresa’s modernisation policies were not entirely progressive. Antisemitism and an enduring suspicion of Protestantism greatly affected the lives of her subjects. This is a gripping study of one of the world’s most influential leaders, revealing how Maria Theresa confounded gendered expectations and left a lasting mark on Europe.

Contents:

Introduction

Chapter 1 The May Child

Chapter 2 The Struggle for the Inheritance

Chapter 3 The Hungarian Concordat

Chapter 4 The Turning of the Tide

Chapter 5 The Prussian Recovery

Chapter 6 The Age of Reform I: The New Men

Chapter 7 The Age of Reform II: Religion and Education

Chapter 8 Enter Kaunitz

Chapter 9 The Grand Renversement

Chapter 10 Mater Castrorum

Chapter 11 Austria Resurgent

Chapter 12 The Humbling of Frederick

Chapter 13 The Queen of Peace

Chapter 14 The Austrian Enlightenment

Chapter 15 The Great Suppression: Educational Upheaval

Chapter 16 Physical Well-Being: The Arrival of a Public Health System

Chapter 17 The King of the Romans

Chapter 18 The Terrible 'Betrayal': The First Partition of Poland

Chapter 19 Bayonets and Potatoes: The Bavarian Succession Crisis

Chapter 20 Kaiserin, Wittib: The Mourning Empress and the Struggle for Constancy

Chapter 21 The Mother (I): The Daughters

Chapter 22 The Mother (II): The Sons

Chapter 23 Joseph and Josephinism

Chapter 24 Stocks, Subsidies and Free Trade: The Worldo f Theresian Finance

Chapter 26 Maria Theresa's Italian Inheritance: Lombardy

Chapter 27 Challenge and Salvation: Hungary

Chapter 28 Jewel in the Crown: The Austrian Lowlands

Chapter 29 Pandours and Lighthouses: Theresian Croatia

Chapter 30 Twixt Cross and Crescent: The Military Frontier

Chapter 31 Galicia and Lodomeria

Chapter 32 Austria-Bohemia: Consolidating the Austrian Heartlands

Chapter 33 Looking West: The Failure of the French Intellectual Connection.

Chapter 34 The Borders of Intolerance: Maria Theresa and the Jews

Chapter 35 The Artistic Parnassus: Vienna

Chapter 36 Wills and Laws: Milde und Munifizenz

Chapter 37 Music and Drama: A Subversive Universe

Chapter 38 Maria Theresa and Tyrol

Chapter 39 Porzellan and Augarten

Chapter 40 The Art of the Pittor Turco: Jean-Étienne Liotard's Visits to Vienna

Chapter 41 Pietas Theresiana

Chapter 42 Theresian (Keynesian) Monetary Policy: The Austrian 'Dollar

Chapter 43 The 'Silver Rose': Theresian Nostalgia

Chapter 44 Courage and Honour: The Maria Theresa Order

Chapter 45 The Zuckerkönigin: Rococo Delights

Chapter 46 Femininity and Feminism: Maria Theresa as Landesmutter

Chapter 47 Triumph of the Modern: Franz Xaver Messerschmidt

Chapter 48 The War on Superstition

Chapter 49 The Secret World: Postlogen and Geheimziffern

Chapter 50Recalibrating Austria's Eastern Flank: Maria Theresa and the Ottomans

Conclusion: The Enlightenment Empress

Timeline of Events.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780300281194

0300281196

OCLC:

1485004112