This clear and compelling account explains why, a century after its disappearance, the Habsburg Monarchy has never been more relevant.

Steven Beller is an independent scholar, having studied history at the University of Cambridge, and been a Research Fellow at Peterhouse, Cambridge. He has been a Member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and a Fellow of the Institute for the Human Sciences (IWM), as well as of the International Research Centre for Cultural Studies (IFK). He has written extensively on subjects in modern Central European and modern Jewish history and was awarded the Austrian State History Prize for the German translation of his first book Vienna and the Jews, 1867-1938: A Cultural History (Cambridge, 1989) in 1995. Other books include Herzl (1991); Francis Joseph (1996); A Concise History of Austria (Cambridge, 2006); Antisemitism: A Very Short Introduction (2015); and Democracy (2013). He is a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts and has taught modern European and modern Jewish history.

List of figures; Introduction: Austria and modernity; 1. 1815-1835: restoration and procrastination; 2. 1835-1851: revolution and reaction; 3. 1852-1867: transformation; 4. 1867-1879: liberalization; 5. 1879-1897: nationalization; 6. 1897-1914: modernization; 7. 1914-1918: self-destruction; Conclusion: Central Europe and the paths not taken; Bibliography; Index.