The University of British Columbia

Economic Development in the Habsburg Monarchy in the Nineteenth Century: Essays. Edited by John Komlos. Boulder, Colo.: East European Monographs, 1983. xii, 204 pp. $20.00. Distributed by Columbia University Press. The Habsburg Monarchy may have disappeared from the map but shows no signs of disappearing from our historical consciousness. The historiography on the decline of the monarchy and the reasons for its demise in 1918 has become a major industry. The ques- tion "Was the Habsburg Monarchy a viable structure?" has long been de rigueur for the congnoscenti-a kind of test of an historian's intellectual prowess; the arguments for and against the proposition have hardly changed for the past sixty years. In recent years, economic historians, including the practitioners of the cliometric art, have moved into the field and brought in a bit of fresh air. They have raised a number of questions con- cerning the monarchy's economic structure and have furnished answers supported by quantitative research, based on the statistical data compiled with such meticulous care by Habsburg bureaucrats. The present volume belongs to this genre. While bearing the unmistakable imprint of economic expertise, the volume is, merci- fully, not unduly weighed down by economic jargon (although it is not wholly free from it); it is, in fact, aimed at the non-specialist. It consists of nine essays, eight of which have been published before in different journals or collections, and three of which are by Marxists-two Hungarian and one Czech. Insofar as any theme stands out in this potpourri, it is that the economy of the Habsburg Monarchy was an integrated market (essays by Good and Ranki, and to some extent those by Marz and Komos, the latter two dealing with financial institutions)-a view that lends, at least in the economic sphere, plausibility to those who regard the monarchy as a viable structure. Some of the essays present "revisionist" viewpoints. Thus, one author (Rudolph) concludes that the year 1848, with its emancipation of the peasantry, was not as uniformly conducive to economic growth as has been supposed. Another author (Eddie) casts doubt on the conventional view according to which in Hungary the continued existence, in the second half of the nineteenth century, of large landed estates was a hindrance to economic development. The essay by the Czech historian Klima does not have a revisionist edge, but his account of entrepreneurship in Bo- hemia during the early decades of industrialization illuminates some dark corners; in par- ticular, it calls attention to the role played by West European entrepreneurs in the pro- cess. A comparative note is sounded by the Hungarian historian Katus who finds that, unlike in Western Europe, the construction of railroads in Hungary preceded rather than followed, industrialization. In conclusion, one note of regret-only three essays in this volume deal, specifically, with non-German nationalities (two with Hungarians, one with Czechs). I wonder if a greater effort could not have been made to cover more non-German groups. In the introduction, the editor speaks of plans for a sequel to the present volume. This may give him an opportunity to make his type of material more representative 'of the multi-national character of the monarchy. Stanley Z. Pech The University of British Columbia Paul Robert Magocsi. Galicia: A Historical Survey and Bibliographic Guide. Toronto and Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 1983. xix, 299 pp. $19.95. It must be stated at the outset that this book is not a historical survey and bibliographic guide to all the territories and peoples of the Austrian-ruled "Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria" between the years 1772 and 1918. Paul Magocsi acknowledges in his introduction that "the concept of Galicia is problematic" and that "most writings . generally understand Galicia to be synonymous with the province obtained by the Aus- trian Empire in 1772" (p. xiv). He, however, understands the term "Galicia" to mean the approximate lands of the medieval Principality of Halych founded in the mid-twelth century as a minor dependency of the Kievan Rus' state. Over the next seven centuries, rule of this territory passed through several hands as it was successively restructured to suit the political designs of the Hungarians, Poles, Austrians, and Russians. Nevertheless, the majority of its inhabitants remained Ukrainians, or Ruthenians as they have been known for most of their history. For this reason, the ambiguous title notwithstanding, Magocsi emphasizes the literature and sources on the Ukrainian presence in the territory of Halych Rus' (Galician Ukraine) from its prehistory to the post-World War II era. The area is a prime example of the lack of historical continuity in Eastern Europe. At the beginning of the thirteenth century Halych Rus' was joined with neighboring Volhynia, and in 1253 reigning Prince Danylo received a crown. Seized by the Poles in 1340, it was for the next four centuries the part of the Polish korona, known usually as Red Ruthenia (Rus' Czerwona). The province made up approximately two-thirds of the territory seized by Austria in the first partition of Poland, and unofficially it was re- ' ferred to as Eastern Galicia. During the interwar years it comprised the southeastern cor- ner of the independent Polish Second Republic. When Poland again was partitioned in September 1939, it was incorporated into the Soviet Ukraine, and since 1945 is generally described as the Western Ukraine (Zakhidna Ukraina). The lands that Magocsi has in mind are bordered to the south and east by the curve of the Carpathians, to the west by the Wistok River, to the east by the Zbruch and Cheremosh Rivers, and to the north by a line running approximately eastward from the confluence of the Wistok and San Riv- ers through the towns of Zhovkva (Nesterov), Brody, and Zbarazh. The Dniester River intersects the region, and its principal city and capital has been L'viv (Lwow, Lemberg, Leopol). The best way to describe Magocsi's work is as an extended bibliographic essay with the pages divided more or less evenly between text and notes. Of the latter there are about 1,000 entries containing over 3,000 references. The first two chapters survey general studies and various aids to research. Especially useful in the latter regard is Magoc- si's discussion of libraries and archives for the study of Galician Ukraine. Seven chrono- logically arranged chapters follow, two of which address the period under Austrian rule. A brief final chapter discusses works on the region's German, Jewish, Karaite, and Ar- menian minorities. Magocsi eschews any systematic examination of the Polish "minorities," however, noting that "it is difficult to speak of them as a minority, because from at least the mid-fourteenth through mid-tweritieth centuries they were the dom- inant political, social, and cultural force in the area" (p. 224). He uses as an argument against including writings specifically on the Poles the fact that most Polish scholarship has never distinguished the Poles in Galician Ukraine from their neighboring brethren. While this may be true in the narrow sense, it provides Magocsi with a convenient handle. to justify the essentially Ukrainian character of his study. Thus, there remains a vast scholarly literature in Polish, for the most part not addressed by him, that deals directly or indirectly with Polish politics, culture, and society in this region. But as a bibliographic guide to Ukrainian history of this small, though historically important beyond its size, portion of the present-day Ukraine, Magocsi's book is an in- valuable aid to scholars. The format chosen allows him to point out subjects of histor- iographical controversy and also to provide information on Church, cultural, literary, and urban-economic themes as well as basic political developments. Moreover, Magocsi gives as complete as possible bibliographic citations. By his own reckoning, he personal- ly "viewed ... more than 90 percent of the items mentioned," a remarkable accomplish- ment in its own right. A forty-three page, double-columned index has been arranged so .

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