Judson reminds us of how little we have fully grasped the subtleties and complexities of Habsburg history. “A masterpiece of historical rethinking by one of the great Habsburg historians of our age. “ subtly argued work of deep scholarship… A nuanced scholarly reappraisal of a significant European empire. “Spectacularly revisionist… Judson argues that…the empire was a force for progress and modernity… This is a bold and refreshing book… Judson does much to destroy the picture of an ossified regime and state. His view is not blurred by the unhelpful nostalgia with which so many accounts are suffused. “Crisply written and nuanced… With invigorating precision, analyses how the state was built up by various forces working simultaneously from above and below. His narrative may be one of many possible readings of Habsburg history, as he himself says-yet it is one that is both nuanced and compelling. Refreshingly, his book also challenges lasting presumptions about differences between Europe east and west, backward and developed, ethnic and civic. “Judson’s reflections on nations, states and institutions are of broader interest, not least in the current debate on the future of the European Union after Brexit. ” -Natasha Wheatley, London Review of Books
“ The Habsburg Empire is Judson’s attempt at a grand, unified history of Austria-Hungary for our times… Habsburg history is not the same after this book. Judson rejects conventional depictions of the Habsburg empire as a hopelessly dysfunctional assemblage of squabbling nationalities and stresses its achievements in law, administration, science and the arts. “This is an engaging reappraisal of the empire whose legacy, a century after its collapse in 1918, still resonates across the nation-states that replaced it in central Europe. Lucid, elegant, full of surprising and illuminating details, it can be warmly recommended to anyone with an interest in modern European history. If his account of Habsburg achievements, especially in the 18th century, is rather starry-eyed, it is a welcome corrective to the black legend usually presented.
0 kommentar(er)
