Books in the Central European Studies series

Covers the tumultuous period in the Habsburg Empire from Joseph II's failed reforms through the Revolutions of 1848, documenting the ongoing struggle between religious activism and civil peace. Though civil peace and religious toleration eventually became the norm, this book documents the decades of heavy-handed state efforts to get there.

Offers a comprehensive analysis of German-Ukrainian collaboration in the General Government, an area of occupied Poland during World War II. Drawing on extensive archival material, the Ukrainian position is examined chiefly through the perspective of Ukrainian Central Committee head Volodymyr Kubiiovych, a prewar academic and ardent nationalist.

Provides a study of the aftermath of war and state socialism in the contemporary Balkans. The authors look at the inescapable inheritances of the recent past and those that the present has to deal with. The book's key theme is the interaction, often subliminal, of the experiences of war and socialism in contemporary society in the region.

Jan Hus was a late medieval Czech university master and popular preacher who was condemned at the Council of Constance and burned at the stake as a heretic in 1415. Looking for Hus's significance in his own time, this treatment tells a story of a late medieval intellectual who generated conflict and eventually brought execution upon himself.

In late eighteenth-century Vienna a remarkable coterie of five aristocratic women, popularly known as the "e;five princesses,"e; achieved social preeminence and acclaim as close associates of the reforming Habsburg Emperor Joseph II. They were Princess Maria Josepha Clary (1728-1801); Princess Maria Sidonia Kinsky (1729-1815); Princess Maria Leopoldine Liechtenstein (1733-1809); Countess, subsequently Princess, Maria Leopoldine Kaunitz (1741-1795); and Princess Maria Eleonore Liechtenstein (1745-1812). The group assumed a stable form by 1772, by which time Joseph II and two of his closest male associates, Field Marshal Franz Moritz Lacy and Count Franz Xavier Orsini-Rosenberg, had become accepted members of the circle as well. During the Viennese social season, members of the group made their way several times each week to the inner city palace of one of the "e;Dames,"e; as members of the group called themselves. During the summer months, when the women dispersed to visit country estates in Bohemia and Moravia or to travel, group members corresponded regularly. These were exciting, restless years in the Habsburg monarchy, as reforms were implemented to help the monarchy withstand threats to its stability and international stature from without and within. With assured access to the emperor and his closest advisors, the Dames enjoyed both a unique view of events and a chance to participate in public affairs (albeit informally and discreetly) as steadfast, acknowledged friends of the emperor. Through analysis of the correspondence of these women and of the published and unpublished commentaries of their contemporaries, this study scrutinizes the activities of this select group of women during the co-regency period (1765-1780) when Joseph shared responsibility with his mother, Maria Theresia, and during Joseph's decade as sole ruler (1780-1790) after Maria Theresia's death-years during which the women enjoyed their special position.

Grand palaces of culture, opera theaters marked the center of European cities like the cathedrals of the Middle Ages. As opera cast its spell, almost every European city and society aspired to have its own opera house, and dozens of new theaters were constructed in the course of the "e;long"e; nineteenth century. At the time of the French Revolution in 1789, only a few, mostly royal, opera theaters, existed in Europe. However, by the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries nearly every large town possessed a theater in which operas were performed, especially in Central Europe, the region upon which this book concentrates. This volume, a revised and extended version of two well-reviewed books published in German and Czech, explores the social and political background to this "e;opera mania"e; in nineteenth century Central Europe. After tracing the major trends in the opera history of the period, including the emergence of national genres of opera and its various social functions and cultural meanings, the author contrasts the histories of the major houses in Dresden (a court theater), Lemberg (a theater built and sponsored by aristocrats), and Prague (a civic institution). Beyond the operatic institutions and their key stage productions, composers such as Carl Maria von Weber, Richard Wagner, Bed?ich Smetana, Stanis?aw Moniuszko, Antonin Dvo?ak, and Richard Strauss are put in their social and political contexts. The concluding chapter, bringing together the different leitmotifs of social and cultural history explored in the rest of the book, explains the specificities of opera life in Central Europe within a wider European and global framework.

Tackles the thorny issue of the disappearance of Montenegro as a sovereign state in the course of and as a result of the First World War. This book investigates the ambiguous and often troubled relationship between two ""Serb states,"" Montenegro and Serbia. It examines the politics and power plays of Serbs, Montenegrins, and others.

A multidisciplinary approach exploring the historical antecedents and the dynamic process of Yugoslavia's violent dissolution. This volume examines issues broadening our understanding of the Yugoslav case, and also sheds light on how to deal with state fragility and failure.

It has been two decades since Yugoslavia fell apart. The brutal conflicts that followed its dissolution are over, but the legacy of the tragedy continues to unsettle the region. Reconciliation is a long and difficult process that necessitates a willingness to work together openly and objectively in confronting the past. Over the past ten years the Scholars¿ Initiative has assembled an international consortium of historians, social scientists, and jurists to examine the salient controversies that still divide the peoples of former Yugoslavia. The findings of its eleven research teams represent a direct assault on the proprietary narratives and interpretations that nationalist politicians and media have impressed on mass culture in each of the successor states. Given gaps in the historical record and the existence of sometimes contradictory evidence, this volume does not pretend to resolve all of the outstanding issues. Nevertheless, this second edition incorporates new evidence and major developments that have taken place in the region since the first edition went to press. At the heart of this project has always been the insistence of the authors that they would continue to reconsider their analyses and conclusions based on credible new evidence. Thus, in this second edition, the work of the Scholars' Initiative continues. The broadly conceived synthesis will assist scholars, public officials, and the people they represent both in acknowledging inconvenient facts and in discrediting widely held myths that inform popular attitudes and the electoral success of nationalist politicians who profit from them. Rather than rely on special pleading and appeals to patriotism that have no place in scholarship, the volume vests its credibility in the scientific credentials of its investigators, the transparent impartiality of its methodology, and an absolute commitment to soliciting and examining evidence presented by all sides.

Provides an overview of the relationship between Germany, German speakers, and successive waves of German colonists with their eastern neighbors from the Middle Ages. This book covers medieval period which saw the first German colonial expansion eastward. It reviews the role of German speakers in the development policies of enlightened absolutism.

Rothenberg's work in the first analytical, full, length study of the army of Francis Joseph throughout its history from 1815-1918.

This volume aims to show the right questions to ask in a survey questionnaire. It presents a framework of seven simple questions, and the advantage and disadvantage of the different question types and when to use each.