Modern Austria

An overview of the Austria's recent history written for the general reader and the student.

The history of the Habsburg Monarchy and Austria in the early modern period continues to capture the interest of many scholars. This collection of essays by twenty leading authorities from the United States, Austria, Germany, Great Britain, and the Netherlands focuses on the interplay between the Habsburg government and a multiplicity of social aspects. As a whole, State and Society in Early Modern Austria reexamines and sometimes debunks old views about the Habsburg Monarchy and provides insight into the state of current historical thinking on the early modern state. Moreover, this broad focus will help the reader understand the complex cultural heritage of the turbulent nationalities of East Central Europe. Specific essays examine the ruling elite's attempts to establish cultural hegemony through its control over religious minorities, government patronage, and both literary and visual media. Other essays examine the interplay between economic and social policy; the tension between free enterprise and the Habsburg regime's attempts to meet the immediate needs of the masses of indigent; and the monarchy's interaction with German states and the Balkans. The volume is divided into five sections: Religion and the Counter-Reformation, Government and Culture during the Baroque, Government and Economy, Government and the People during the Aufklarung, and Foreign Policy.

This collection of essays explores the changing history, rhetoric, politics and representation of crime and madness in modern Austria. From the emergence of Viennese modernism to the post-modern moment, the myths, metaphors and realities of crime and madness have unfolded in the shadow of larger cultural questions regarding cultural norms, gender, war, and national identity. Historically based contributions illuminate such diverse cultural realities as the evolution of psychiatry as medical practice, asylum practices in the early twentieth century, and Austrian participation in and responses to terror and war crimes. From these investigations proceeds the clear insight that cultural responses to crime and madness are often steeped in mythmaking as much as objective policy and practice. Conversely, literary and metaphorical representations of crime and madness reveal attitudes and cultural realities about the Austrian society that produced them and which they reflect. Specialists from the fields of Austrian history, literature and culture studies have collaborated to produce this truly interdisciplinary volume, which responses to crime and madness are often steeped in mythmaking as much as objective policy and practice. Conversely, literary and metaphorical representations of crime and madness reveal attitudes and cultural realities about the Austrian society that produced them and which they reflect.

For a small, prosperous country in the middle of Europe, modern Austria has a very large and complex history, extending far beyond its current borders. In a gripping narrative supported by beautiful illustrations, Steven Beller traces the remarkable career of Austria from German borderland to successful Alpine republic.

The Habsburg Monarchy has received much historiographical attention since 1945. Yet the military aspects of Austria’s emergence as a European great power in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries have remained obscure. This book shows that force of arms and the instruments of the early modern state were just as important as its marriage policy in creating and holding together the Habsburg Monarchy. Drawing on an impressive up-to-date bibliography as well as on original archival research, this survey is the first to put Vienna’s military back at the centre stage of early modern Austrian history.