Read more
Zusatztext In Forging a Multinational State , Deak courageously presents a coherent narrative history of a challenging subject....Given the sheer complexity and size of his topic, Deak's achievement is remarkable. He argues forcefully in clear, often stylish language for a different appreciation of the accomplishments of the Habsburg monarchy and particularly of the bureaucracy." Informationen zum Autor John Deak is Assistant Professor of European History at the University of Notre Dame. Klappentext Forging a Multinational State provides a much-needed history of state-building in central Europe during the long nineteenth century. Zusammenfassung Forging a Multinational State provides a much-needed history of state-building in central Europe during the long nineteenth century. Inhaltsverzeichnis Contents and Abstracts Introduction chapter abstract The introduction discusses the Habsburg monarchy in the context of European history and the themes of state building and state making. State building as a concept has been seen largely through the histories of nation states and nation-state development. This concept stems from the philosophy of history and progress outlined by G.F.W. Hegel in his Lectures on the Philosophy of History, first posthumously published in 1837. Such a view, however, leaves out or unfairly judges much of non-western Europe and, importantly, alternatives to the nation state in history. This introduction puts the history of the Habsburg Empire squarely in the center of European state building and its accompanying social and political transformations. 1 The Dynamics of Austrian Governance, 1780-1848 chapter abstract Chapter 1 presents the dialectic of Austrian rule: the tradition of reform and the desire for inertia. The reform emperor, Joseph II, bequeathed a spirit and attitude that made the state a good in itself. Importantly, he worked to instill this attitude in growing cadres of bureaucrats. But Joseph II died in 1790. Joseph's twenty-four-year-old nephew, Francis, assumed the head of the House of Habsburg in 1792. Francis came to represent the defender of the old regime. He made peace with the nobles and the Church, the very institutions that had come under relentless pressure by Joseph II's state-building project. The transformation of society that Joseph envisioned went into a state of hibernation as Francis ruled for more than forty years. The bureaucracy that Joseph refined languished under low pay, scant possibilities for advancement, and a state policy that lost its will to evolve. 2 The Madness of Count Stadion, or Austria Between Revolution and Reaction chapter abstract In March 1848, revolution came to the Habsburg lands driving the forces of reaction underground. Revolution might have forced the government to act, but the empire's officials responded with more than barricades and gunshot. With revolution came constitutions, land reform, press freedoms, local and state-wide elections, and parliamentary life. Over the course of 1848, the old regime melted away as Austria's parliamentarians and governments passed and decreed new laws. One official in particular, Count Franz von Stadion, wrote a constitution for Austria that would never be enacted, but would serve as a model for integrating bureaucratic authority and representative institutions. Stadion's ideas proved...
