Habsburg Empire

<p><b>A <i>EuropeNow</i> Editor's Pick<br>A <i>Choice</i> Outstanding Academic Title of the Year <p/>Pieter M. Judson's book informs and stimulates. If his account of Habsburg achievements especially in the 18th century is rather starry-eyed it is a welcome corrective to the black legend usually presented. Lucid elegant full of surprising and illuminating details it can be warmly recommended to anyone with an interest in modern European history.<br>--Tim Blanning <i>Wall Street Journal</i></b> <p/>This is an engaging reappraisal of the empire whose legacy a century after its collapse in 1918 still resonates across the nation-states that replaced it in central Europe. Judson rejects conventional depictions of the Habsburg empire as a hopelessly dysfunctional assemblage of squabbling nationalities and stresses its achievements in law administration science and the arts.<br>--Tony Barber <i>Financial Times</i> <p/>Spectacularly revisionist... Judson argues that...the empire was a force for progress and modernity... This is a bold and refreshing book... Judson does much to destroy the picture of an ossified regime and state.<br>--A. W. Purdue <i>Times Higher Education</i> <p/>Judson's reflections on nations states and institutions are of broader interest not least in the current debate on the future of the European Union after Brexit.<br>--Annabelle Chapman <i>Prospect</i></p>