Jean Berenger. A History of the Habsburg Empire, 1700-1918. White Plains: Longman, 1997. ix + 342 pp. $97.33, cloth, ISBN 978-0-582-09008-8.
Reviewed by Gary B. Cohen
Published on HABSBURG (April, 1998)
Those who teach the history of the Habsburg Unfortunately, Berenger's treatment of the Monarchy in the eighteenth and nineteenth cen‐ eighteenth and nineteenth centuries will disap‐ turies surely have need for a new English-lan‐ point many who teach in the feld. The strongest guage survey that would refect the last three threads running through this volume are those of decades of scholarship. For all its insights and wit, dynastic, diplomatic, and military history. The au‐ A.J.P. Taylor's History of the Habsburg Empire, thor, a professor at the Sorbonne born in 1934, in‐ 1809-1918, frst published in 1948, is out of date tersperses the political and diplomatic narrative and often oversimplifed.[1] Barbara Jelavich's with brief treatments of economic development Modern Austria: Empire and Republic, and some of the principal social trends, particu‐ 1815-1986[2] treats much of the nineteenth centu‐ larly those afecting peasants. So casual is the ry in cursory fashion in order to get on to the treatment of social structure, however, that the twentieth century. Robert A. Kann ofers much important contrasts are never drawn in the struc‐ more comprehensive coverage both chronologi‐ ture and size of the nobility in Hungary, Galicia, cally and topically in his History of the Habsburg and the Alpine-Bohemian lands. There are brief Empire, 1526-1918.[3] That book, however, is accounts of the major cultural and intellectual nearly a quarter-century old now; and its prose is trends in each period, although Austrian German fat, the treatment of society and economics often culture, particularly in Vienna, gets more atten‐ thin, and the analytic and synthetic points fre‐ tion than the intellectual life of the other national‐ quently underdeveloped. The editors at Addison ities. Berenger generally captures well the person‐ Wesley Longman must have recognized this need ality and primary domestic and foreign political when they undertook publication in two volumes concerns of each ruler and ofers clear accounts of a translation of Jean Berenger's Histoire de of the principal political and military crises. Oth‐ l'Empire des Habsbourg, 1273-1918, frst pub‐ erwise, much of the political and diplomatic nar‐ lished in France in 1990.[4] rative will strike younger scholars, even those with strong interests in politics and diplomacy, as H-Net Reviews old fashioned in conceptualization and interpreta‐ process of state-building in which those monarchs tion. were engaged. Berenger includes in his bibliography and Apparently, Berenger believes that the Aus‐ notes some of the most important German-, tro-Hungarian state never really changed much French-, and English-language scholarship on from its basis in early modern Habsburg dynastic diplomatic, cultural, and economic developments politics. In his concluding chapter, after having published through the 1980s. Few Hungarian pub‐ treated World War I and the breakup of the lications and almost no Czech or Polish works Monarchy in the previous chapter, Berenger show up. The fresh accounts of Austro-Hungarian places the focus squarely back on the dynasty and economic development by David Good, John Kom‐ the strengths and weaknesses of the last two em‐ los, Herbert Matis, and Bernard Michel make their perors. Regarding the period from 1867 to 1918, mark here as do various revisionist works from the reader is told that "despite appearances, Aus‐ the last two or three decades on important diplo‐ tria-Hungary remained what the Habsburg matic and military issues. Berenger treats political monarchy had always been, a state resting on the developments more conventionally, and older dynasty, the army, the bureaucracy, and the scholarship seems to have dominated his thinking Church" (p. 212). That statement may hold much on politics. He duly describes the rise of the na‐ truth as a simple generalization, but in the late tional movements and the eventual emergence of nineteenth century, in an era of advanced eco‐ the mass parties, but without a clear sense of the nomic development and widening mass political processes and phases of political mobilization. participation, the institutions of government bu‐ Bruce Garver's 1978 book on the Young Czech Par‐ reaucracy, army, and Church surely were struc‐ ty [5] is cited, but no works by John Boyer, Harm- tured very diferently, functioned diferently, and Hinrich Brandt, Jiri Koralka, Christoph Stoelzl, or related diferently to various parts of the popula‐ Otto Urban. tion than they had in the seventeenth and eigh‐ Berenger is at his best in describing the teenth centuries. Readers will not learn from dilemmas of the Austrian Habsburg rulers in the Berenger, for instance, that after the 1860s com‐ early and middle eighteenth century in trying to munal councils, district agencies, Hungary's coun‐ hold their lands together and deal with the vari‐ ty assemblies, and the provincial diets and their ous external and internal threats to their power. administrative agencies in Cisleithania all played The dynastic politics, diplomatic duels, and mili‐ important roles, along with the two parliaments, tary challenges of the eighteenth century come in making and implementing various aspects of across vividly; and these issues get generally good public policy. Even if the processes of democrati‐ treatment in the account of the nineteenth centu‐ zation were slow in the Habsburg Monarchy, po‐ ry, as well. Not surprisingly, the role of France litical parties and popular interest groups at the looms larger here than in most survey histories of end of the nineteenth century increasingly pene‐ the Habsburg Monarchy written by Austrian, Eng‐ trated the local, district, and provincial bodies and lish, and American scholars. Berenger treats the forced ministerial ofcials to deal with them. major domestic policies of the eighteenth-century Democratic, federal reforms of the state were con‐ Habsburg sovereigns and notes some of the ceivable during the fnal decades, at least in Cislei‐ changes they made in government institutions, thania, precisely because of the functioning of lo‐ but he ofers little worked-out analysis of the cal, district, and provincial institutions and their changing structure of the state or the larger relations with popular parties and interest groups.
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A little more attention to developments in the It is hard to recommend this book for student lower levels of government would strengthen, in use: for the eighteenth century Charles W. In‐ fact, Berenger's assertions in the fnal chapters grao's The Habsburg Monarchy, 1618-1815 [6] is about the continuing viability of the Habsburg preferable and for the nineteenth century even state and the possibilities for reform even at the with their faults so are the older surveys by A. J. P. very end. He fnds considerable continuing vitali‐ Taylor and Robert Kann. ty in the basic institutions of the Habsburg state Notes through World War I. Berenger supports the argu‐ [1]. A. J. P. Taylor, The Habsburg Monarchy, ment that external factors were to blame for the Eighteen Nine to Nineteen Eighteen: A History of fnal dissolution: the inability of Emperor Charles the Austrian Empire & Austria-Hungary (London: to get a separate peace, the economic collapse H. Hamilton, 1948; paperback in print: Chicago: caused by the war, the shortsighted determina‐ University of Chicago Press, May 1976). tion of the Entente powers and the United States in 1918 to be done with the Habsburg Monarchy, [2]. Barbara Jelavich, Modern Austria: Empire and the ambitions of some of the nationalist and Republic, 1815-1986 (Cambridge: Cambridge politicians, particularly those in exile. In University Press, 1987). Berenger's view, a democratic, federal reform of [3]. Robert A. Kann, History of the Habsburg the state might have given the monarchy a fresh Empire 1526-1918 (Berkeley: University of Califor‐ start, even as late as the accession of Emperor nia Press, 1974). Charles. [4]. Jean Berenger, Histoire de l'Empire des The presentation of the book also leaves Habsbourg 1273-1918 (Paris: Fayard, 1990). something to be desired. Some useful maps, ge‐ [5]. Bruce M. Garver, The Young Czech Party, nealogical and statistical tables, a chronology, and 1874-1901, and the Emergence of a Multi-Party a glossary of German terms are presented at the System (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1978). back. The author's bibliography is a brief fve [6]. Charles W. Ingrao, The Habsburg Monar‐ pages. The translator, C. A. Simpson, has augment‐ chy, 1618-1815 (Cambridge and New York: Cam‐ ed that with his own bibliographical essay, but bridge University Press, 1994). that runs only to six and one half pages. In a num‐ ber of instances, Simpson, a young British histori‐ Copyright (c) 1998 by H-Net, all rights re‐ an, has failed to fnd the right English terminology served. This work may be copied for non-proft to render accurately the historical sense of educational use if proper credit is given to the re‐ Berenger's French--or to correct his incidental er‐ viewer and to HABSBURG. For other permission, rors. The description in the text of Brahms as "a please contact
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Citation: Gary B. Cohen. Review of Berenger, Jean. A History of the Habsburg Empire, 1700-1918. HABSBURG, H-Net Reviews. April, 1998.
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