On the Habsburg Empire

This is a fantastic book that emphasizes the Habsburgs’ strategies of rule, rather than a broad overview of all Habsburg history. In the first portion of this work, Judson argues that the Habsburg Empire engaged in large-scale reform in hopes of creating a coherent imperial state. After the Congress of Vienna, the Habsburg Empire dropped its reformist policies and instead aimed to simply keep the peace. By 1848, Judson argues that nationalism became a force of its own, although the Habsburgs were capable of accommodating these national movements by reinstituting new reforms. Interestingly, he suggests that there was wide-ranging popular support for the empire virtually everywhere outside of Hungary and Italy.

Although much of the work illustrates the Habsburgs as an empire that was indeed “muddling along,” Judson argues that the First World War was not the proverbial “straw that broke the camel’s back,” but that the Habsburg empire was capable of lasting much longer (it was not simply an anachronism). However, with the onset of World War I, Habsburg governance took a more authoritarian turn towards new sets of unforeseen issues and peoples all across the empire began to distrust the government, eventually contributing to its collapse in 1918.

To me, the Habsburg Empire is one of the most interesting facets of European history in the long nineteenth century. Most of the time, it seems to be a complete anomaly and a curious subject of study. However, Judson highlights the similarities that the Habsburgs had with other European powers in the hopes of demystifying the Habsburgs. As rightly guided as this is, I still cannot shake the utter strangeness of the Habsburg Empire. Despite its rather frequent oppressiveness and paralysis in the face of political crisis, I have a great deal of affection for this often maligned empire and look forward to reading more about it.