Nikolić, Anja

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Serbian Academy of Science and Arts Digital Archive (DAIS)

BELGRADE 2018XLIX 2018INSTITUTE FOR BALKAN STUDIESSERBIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES AND ARTSBALCANICAISSN 0350-7653eISSN 2406-0801UDC 930.85(4-12)ANNUAL OF THE INSTITUTE FOR BALKAN STUDIESY. MOURÉLOS, Le Front d’Orient dans la Grande Guerre: enjeux et stratégies • A. D’ALESSANDRI, Italian Volunteers in Serbia in 1914 • M. KOVIĆ, The British Adriatic Squadron and the Evacuation of Serbs from the Albanian Coast 1915–1916 • M. MILKIĆ, The Serbian Army in the Chalkidiki in 1916: Organization and Deployment • D. FUNDIĆ, The Austro-Hungarian Occupation of Serbia as a “Civilizing Mission” (1915–1918) • S. N. DORDANAS, German Propaganda in the Balkans during the First World War • D. CAIN, Conflicts over Dobruja during the Great War • T. KREMPP PUPPINCK, De la Grèce rêvée à la Grèce vécue. L’armée d’Orient dans une interculturalité complexe • V. G. PAVLOVIĆ, Franchet d’Espèrey et la politique balkanique de la France 1918–1919 • S. G. MARKOVICH, EleftheriosVenizelos, British Public Opinion and the Climax of Anglo-Hellenism (1915–1920) • D. BAKIĆ, The Great War and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia: The Legacy of an Enduring Conflict • I. D. MICHAILIDIS, A Ten Years’ War: Aspects of the Greek Historiography on the First World War • R. THEODORESCU, What Exactly did Romanian Post-War Nationalism Mean? • V. VLASIDIS, The Serbian Heritage of the Great War in Greece • F. ŢURCANU, Turtucaia/Toutrakan 1916 : la postérité d’une défaite dans la Roumanie de l’entre-deux-guerres • E. LEMONIDOU, Heritage and Memory of the First World War in Greece during the Interwar Period: A Historical Perspective • D. DUŠANIĆ, Du traumatisme au roman. Mémoire et représentation de la Grande Guerre dans l’œuvre de Rastko Petrović (1898–1949) ghttp://www.balcanica.rsPieter M. Judson, The Habsburg Empire: A New History. Cambridge and London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2018, 567 p.Reviewed by Anja Nikolić*REVIEWSPieter M. Judson, currently professor of nineteenth- and twentieth-century his-tory at the European University Institute in Florence, focuses his research on Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe and, in doing so, is concerned with changing the way in which contemporary historiography tends to see the history of Central Europe. The book reviewed here is a product of such concerns. It consists of an introduction, six chapters and an epilogue. It begins with the accession of Maria Theresa to the throne and ends with the year 1918 and the collapse of the Habsburg Empire. It is the absence of a date that would mark the end of the em-pire that the author believes to be important for understanding the Dual Monarchy. As he himself says, the First World War de-stroyed the Habsburg state “by eroding any sense of mutual obligation between people and state; popular and dynastic patriotism withered away, calling into question the very raison d’être of empire” (p. 441). This state-ment perfectly illustrates what Judson wants to demonstrate in his book.   Facts are not of vital importance for this book even though it offers a chronological account of key events such as Maria The-resa’s reforms, the Napoleonic Wars, the revolution of 1848, the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, the introduction of universal manhood suffrage in the Austrian part of the country in 1907, the First World War. What is important is that the author interprets the key moments of Habsburg history in a different way from the one he regards as being entrenched. That is the new history referred to in the title. Judson’s book belongs to the trend in historiography that seeks to revise the history of the Habsburg Empire. Instead of the dominant under-standing of the Dual Monarchy as a scene of a conflict between the empire and nations, he offers a different interpretation. As Judson himself writes, “this book is about how countless local societies across central Europe engaged with the Habsburg * Institute for Balkan Studies SASAhttp://www.balcanica.rsBalcanica XLIX (2018)252dynasty’s effort to build a unified and unify-ing imperial state from the eighteenth cen-tury until the First World War” (p. 4). He wants to examine how the imperial institu-tions and cultural programmes shaped dif-ferent societies across the Empire from the late eighteenth century to the demise of the Habsburg Monarchy. He stresses that the empire itself should be made the focus of research rather than “linguistic groups or ethnically defined nations”. In that way a different narrative for the history of Central and Eastern Europe emerges and a revised history of the empire is produced. What the author finds to be important is the relation-ship between state and society because he believes that they built the Habsburg Em-pire together. This is why this is, in a way, a history from below. The focus is not only on the processes started by those on the top of the hierarchy but also on the multitude that constitutes the society of the Dual Monarchy. As a result of Judson’s approach and at-titude to the Habsburg Monarchy, the main antagonist in his account is nationalism and the national movements of the peoples living under Habsburg rule. The thesis the author insists on in several places is that it was the laws of the Empire that made the national movements possible, because in certain ar-eas and certain periods it permitted the use of vernacular languages. According to Jud-son, it was the elites who created national identities, but he overlooks the presence of linguistic and cultural traditions that the elites drew from in their work on enlighten-ing the people. As far as the building of nation and national feeling is concerned, an especially interesting case is the case of Bosnia-Her-zegovina under Austro-Hungarian occu-pation (1878). The author claims that the colonial regime established in Bosnia-Her-zegovina sought to overcome the dangers of nationalism and that it failed. The Austro-Hungarian attempt to introduce a Bosnian nation aimed at overcoming the differences in the area under occupation failed. Al-though Judson describes it as the attempt of government bureaucrats to create “a non-national Bosnian identification for Bosnian Muslims” (p. 331), it in fact was an identity experiment which failed to take root.  Judson notes that many nationalists were happy working in Austria-Hungary. The First World War, however, changed the situation completely. The Habsburg Mon-archy disappeared and was replaced with national states. The ties upon which the au-thor insists throughout the book, especially the ties between state and society, obviously were not strong enough to keep the Monar-chy together.The purpose of this book is to re-exam-ine the views of the history of the Habsburg state, it raises new questions and offers new ideas. The author was not primarily con-cerned with delving into politics or facts. His is a revisionist reading of the history of the Habsburg Monarchy. Some of his bold views are subject to debate, and some objec-tions have been raised here, especially the specific understanding of nationalism and national movements. Nonetheless, it gives researchers some interesting ideas to think about.    http://www.balcanica.rs

Pieter M. Judson, The Habsburg Empire: A New History. Cambridge and
London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2018, 567 p

http://dais.sanu.ac.rs/bitstream/id/19256/19 REVIEWS 1 Anja Nikolić Pieter M. Judson, The Habsburg Empire A New History.pdf

Pieter M. Judson, The Habsburg Empire: A New History. Cambridge and London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2018, 567 p

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