History / Europe / Austria & Hungary

A compelling historical and ethnographic study of the German speakers in Hungary, from the late nineteenth to the late twentieth century. John C. Swanson’s work looks deeply into the enduring sense of tangible belonging that characterized Germanness from the perspective of rural dwellers, as well as the broader phenomenon of “minority making” in twentieth-century Europe.

The Afterlife of Austria-Hungary examines histories, journalism, and literature in the period between world wars to expose both the positive and the negative treatment of the Habsburg monarchy following its dissolution and the powerful influence of fiction and memory over history. Originally published in Polish, Adam Kozuchowski’s study analyzes the myriad factors that contributed to this phenomenon.

Winner of the 2016 Karl von Vogelsang Staatspreis fuer Geschichte der Gesellschaftswissenschaften (Austrian State Prize for the History of Social Sciences)