Beyond Nationalism: A Social and Political History of the Habsburg Officer Corps, 1848-1918

by Istvan Deak

Overview

In the last seventy years of its long and distinguished existence, the Habsburg monarchy was plagued by the forces of rising nationalism. Still, it preserved domestic peace and provided the conditions for social, economic, and cultural progress in a vast area inhabited by eleven major nationalities and almost as many confessional groups. This study investigates the social origin, education, training, code of honor, lifestyle, and political role of the Habsburg officers. Simultaneously conservative and liberal, the officer corps, originally composed mainly of noblemen, willingly coopted thousands of commoners—among them an extraordinary number of Jews. Even during World War I, the army and its officers endured, surviving the dissolution of the state in October 1918, if only by a few days. The end of the multinational Habsburg army also marked the end of confessional and ethnic tolerance in Central and East Central Europe.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195045055
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	05/24/1990
Edition description:	FACSIMILE
Pages:	314
Product dimensions:	9.56(w) x 6.37(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Columbia University

Table of Contents

	Introduction	3
1.	From the Turkish Wars to the Revolutions of 1848: An Early History	25
2.	Absolutism, Liberal Reform, and the Ideology of Preventive War: The Army Between 1850 and 1914	43
3.	The Making of Future Officers	78
4.	Life in the Regiment	95
5.	From Payday to Payday	114
6.	Latter-Day Knights	126
7.	Marriage, Family, Sexual Ethics, and Crime	139
8.	Pensioners, Widows, and Orphans	149
9.	Nobles and Near-Nobles in the Officer Corps	156
10.	Religion, Nationality, Advanced Training, and Career	165
11.	The Officers in the Great War	190
	Epilogue Habsburg Officers in the Successor States and in the Second World War	205
Appendix I	On Belles-Lettres, Memoirs, and Histories	213
Appendix II	Place Names	225
	Notes	227
	Index	261

Editorial Reviews

"A pioneering study of the social history of a military elite. The subject is much neglected....Enthralling."—R.J.W. Evans, New York Review of Books

"A superior work by a distinguished scholar....Not just the best book about the Habsburg army available, but a work that affords readers marvelously illuminating glimpses into the true nature of the whole monarchy."—CHOICE

"This innovative study of the habburg army officer corps reflects the author's exhaustive research of memoirs and personnel files....Deak's study will be welcomed by military historians and by all students of the habsburg Monarchy and Central European history....one hopes that Beyond Nationalism will provide a model for similar social histories of the military elites of other countries."—The Journal of Military History

"A pioneering work written with Deák's customary precision, verve, and elegance, this book makes a most important contribution to Habsburg studies, military history, and the question of nationalism."—Piotr Wandycz, Yale University

"Written sympathetically and the vast amount of evidence employed is compressed into an easy narrative....More than just a good read, for it makes important revisionist points....An excellent book which every military, social, and political historian of Central Europe will find a joy to read."—Times Higher Education Supplement

"The value of this work is exceptional. It is the only book in the English language that is directed to this complicated, and (in the proper sense of that much misused word) inter-national subject. Deak's research alone should command our respect; but the unusual breadth of his range of interests, together with the forthright style of writing elevates this book beyond the level of a remarkable academic monograph. By this I mean that attempts ought to be made to bring it to the attention of a reading public interested in the history of Central Europe."—John Lukacs

"Deák, is right: compared to what followed, the Hapsburg experiment seems infinitely more civilized and humane. But his relative perspective should be welcomed, too. For after all, the frightful historical baggage carried by the nascent democracies of contemporary East Central Europe also includes troublesome Hapsburg freight."—Commonweal

"His collective portrait, based on a wealth of documentary material, is impressively detailed and comprehensive."—The Times Literary Supplement

"A work of substantial importance, with an excellent bibliographical essay."—Journal of Modern History

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