Firmly established as the leading survey on the subject, this expanded third edition incorporates twenty-five years of new, global scholarship.

Charles Ingrao is Professor Emeritus of History at Purdue University, Indiana. He has held visiting appointments at a number of universities including Brown University, Rhode Island, the University of Cambridge, University of Chicago, University of Washington, Indiana University and multiple universities in Cyprus and New Zealand. He served as editor of the Austrian History Yearbook from 1997-2006. His previous publications include In Quest and Crisis: Emperor Joseph I and the Habsburg Monarchy, 1705-1711 (1979), The Hessian Mercenary State: Ideas, Institutions and Reform under Frederick II, 1760-1785 (1986) and Confronting the Yugoslav Controversies (2009), which he co-authored with Thomas A. Emmert.

1. The distinctiveness of Austrian history; 2. The Thirty Years' War (1618-1648); 3. Facing East: Hungary and the Turks (1648-1699); 4. Facing West: the second Habsburg Empire (1700-1740); 5. The Prussian challenge: war and government reform (1740-1763); 6. Discovering the people: the triumph of cameralism and enlightened absolutism; 7. The Age of Revolution (1789-1815); 8. Decline or disaggregation?