Synopses & Reviews
This book address 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 strucutres there in the face of new challenges at home and abroad.
Each of the essays - some of which specially written for this volume, and others available for the first time in English - is intended to be free-standing and accessible on its own; but they are also designed to fit together and demonstrate an overall coherence. 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 evoltuion 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 boradly, both territorially and chronologically.
Though much of the scholarship underpinning this masterly exploration may be unfamiliar to many readers, this is a an elegantly written and stimulating collection, which reflects the exploratory and individual character of the essay as a genre.
Review
"While this volume may appear to be geared primarily to the specialist, it is, in fact, essential reading for anyone interested in the development of the Habsburg Monarchy. It explores so many critical aspects of Central European history generally ignored in European history textbooks and often even neglected in surveys of the Monarchy itself that it should be seen as an essential supplement to all teaching in the field. Furthermore, because each essay can be read on its own terms and often address unexplored terrain, no scholar engaged in specialized research in the areas covered by this volume can afford to ignore it."--Franz Szabo, International History Review
"If writing history is the art of reconsideration as well as of discovery, this is a superb piece of revision, inspiring much further reflection."--Lásló Kontler, Slavic Review
Review
"If writing history is the art of reconsideration as well as of discovery, this is a superb piece of revision, inspiring much further reflection."--Laslo Kontler, Slavic Review
Review
"While the book may be essential reading for all students and scholars of late imperial China, it also has value for a wider audience seeking to understand the rising power of China in our world today."--Franz A.J. Szabo, The International History Review
"If writing history is the art of reconsideration as well as of discovery, this is a superb piece of revision, inspiring much further reflection."--Laslo Kontler, Slavic Review
About the Author
R. J. W. Evans has taught at Oxford since 1969, and since 1997 has been Regius Professor of Modern History and a Fellow of Oriel College. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, the British Academy, and the Academia Europaea.
Table of Contents
Chronology
1. The Habsburgs and Central Europe 1683-1723
I: Absolutist Enlightenment
2. Maria Theresa and Hungary
3. The Origins of Enlightenment in the Habsburg Lands
4. Culture and Authority in Central Europe 1683-1806
5. The Habsburg Monarch and Bohemia 1526-1848
II: The Rise of Nations
6. Nationality in East-Central Europe: Perception and Definition before 1848
7. Frontiers and National Identites in Central Europe
8. Joseph II and Nationality in the Habsburg Lands
9. Religion and Nation in Hungary 1790-1849
III: Regions and their Interplay
10. The Habsburgs and the Hungarian Problem 1790-1848
11. Empire and Kingdoms: Hungary and Bohemia in the Habsburg Monarchy 1741-1871
12. The Transylvanian Saxons: A German Diaspora
13. Hungary and the German Lands in the Nineteenth Century
IV: The Revolution and Beyond
14. Hungary in the Habsburg Monarchy 1840-1867: A Study of Perceptions
15. From Confederation to Compromise: The Austrian Experiment 1849-1867
16. Central Europe: The History of an Idea
Bibliography
Index