The Habsburg Monarchy, C. 1765-1918: From Enlightenment to Eclipse [Hardcover]

Robin Okey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 15, 2000

The multi-national Habsburg empire has never lost its fascination since its fall in 1918. Robin Okey's book shows how the Habsburg peoples experienced the same social, economi, and political processes as most other Europeans, in ways that cast interesting light on these processes from both the European and the Habsburg angle. Opposing views that the national problem was therefore subordinate to underlying socio-economic backwardness, Okey argues for the inextricable entanglement of the two themes, as nationalism emerged from a process of social mobilization which threatened the position of dominant Austro-Germans and Magyars. Robin Okey brings a distinctive approach to an intriguing subject, in a comprehensive study based on wide reading in most of the Monarchy's languages.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Scholars and students will welcome this fine survey of the Habsburg Monarchy in the modern era." --Choice

About the Author

Robin Okey is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Warwick. He lives in the United Kingdom.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 464 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (December 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312233752
• ISBN-13: 978-0312233754
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #552,662 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #39 in Books > History > Europe > Central Europe
  • #74 in Books > Education & Reference > Genealogy > United Kingdom

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Billions of facts for your delectation ..., February 12, 2001

By 

Thomas J. Brucia "Tom B" (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Habsburg Monarchy, C. 1765-1918: From Enlightenment to Eclipse (Hardcover)

If there is anything a person could have ever wanted to know about the Austro-Hungarian Empire that is not at least touched upon in this tome - I can't imagine what it could be. If you like to do timelines as you read a history book, leave at least five lines per year (better eight!). The level of detail is truly incredible. Robin Okey's approach is to offer fact after fact, event after event, and date after date. ---- Curiously enough, implications almost imperceptibly seep from this jungle of detail - and they are as contemporary as tomorrow morning's news show. The Habsburg Empire was a multi-national empire that failed, and in a world of multi-national states still trying to cope with nationality or tribal problems, this book has a lot to teach (or more correctly, the development and fall of the Empire carried its lessons, for all to learn from). ---- The last seven pages, "Assessment" brilliantly sum up Okey's insights; you might even want to read it BEFORE starting the book... ---- Unfortunately, one of my biggest complaints about otherwise excellent history books mars this one too: pathetic maps. This book has a grand total of two small black-and-white maps of indifferent quality; it needs dozens! Although engravings and photos would have been nice (and are totally absent), the map failure is more than a minor inconvenience. ---- On the other hand, though the notes are a bit sketchy, the index is excellent, and the bibliography is truly awesome. Indeed, the depth and breadth of this book are revealed most clearly in its astoundingly substantial bibliography! ---- Though Okey's writing style is sometimes obscure, more frequently it is overwhelming in its detail. A sample, taken at random: (pg. 199): "The recurrent liberal image of clerical darkness versus contemporary light encouraged the new regime to ambitious plans for education. The May 1868 school law made eight years of primary education compulsory. Regulation of 1872 approved the old 1848 demand for academic freedom in the universities. New universities were founded in Zagreb in 1874 and Czernowitz, capital of the Bukovina, in 1875." ---- Lastly, be advised that Okey's work is not just a political history. It is a history of ideologies (liberalism, autocracy, socialism, and nationalism, just to name a few). It is also an economic history. And it is assuredly a social history. This book, in short, is complete - so bring an appetite for facts to your dinner or prepare to leave the table with massive indigestion!

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A thorough portrait ... but for whom?, March 25, 2002

By 

Andrew S. Rogers (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Habsburg Monarchy, C. 1765-1918: From Enlightenment to Eclipse (Hardcover)

I was really disappointed by this book. As a history-reader, the Habsburg monarchy during the era covered by this title has always been one of my particular interests. As Robin Okey himself notes in his Foreword, general surveys of Austro-Hungarian history are rare -- particularly in English. I picked this volume up with great anticipation.

Unfortunately, I set it down again fairly quickly, and found it hard to resume reading. I wouldn't have thought he could do it, but Okey made me reluctant to read about one of my greatest and longest-standing historical interests.

The problem isn't that the book is poorly researched, badly written or tendentious in argument. On the contrary, it's so incredibly well researched that I had to wonder for whom it was written. For page after page, Okey goes really, really in depth on agricultural production statistics, analyses of economic growth, ethnological comparisons of literary and linguistic developments, political tensions between various nations and regions in the empire, the relative states of national aristocracies ... and much, much more. I now understand, better than ever before, what that old saw about 'the forest for the trees' means. Several times, I found myself so deeply mired in statistics that I forgot what decade Okey was talking about, let alone what point he was trying to make. The second half of the book was somewhat better than the first in this regard, but it was still tough reading at times.

In all, I am afraid this book may be way too much information for an amateur/generalist like me. At the same time, comprehensive as it is, it may not be enough for the specialists researching a specific, narrowly focused, topic. All of which makes me wonder, as I said, for whom it was written.

In that Foreword, Okey writes, 'It is hoped that there will be a place, therefore, for a survey of the Monarchy from the later eighteenth century that takes account of advances in Habsburg studies since the publication of C.A. Macartney's magisterial "The Habsburg Empire" in 1968.' After hacking through this dense book, I have to say that there is *still* a place for such a book -- at least where the amateur historian and general reader are concerned

5.0 out of 5 stars Complex and misunderstood, like the Monarchy itself, June 13, 2009

By 

James V. Holton "The Ecclectic Professor" (Florida United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Habsburg Monarchy, C.1765-1918: From Enlightenment to Eclipse (Paperback)

Not for the lighthearted or amateur. A sweeping look at the Hapsburg Monarchy from the period of Joseph II to its sad demise in 1918. Okey updates the Hapsburg empire through the lens of late 20th/early 21st century historical questions (brought about by the receding of Cold War language vis-a-vis central and eastern Europe) by deftly analyzing looks at the weaknesses and vitality of the empire in its political, socio-economic and cultural fields. This best is best reserved for "professionals," those with deep knowledge of Hapsburg history, as its depth and historiographical references may leave the casual reader confused. This book is not a meta-narrative but an in-depth analysis of what was and what could have been.