Embers of Empire

The collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy at the end of World War I ushered in a period of radical change for East-Central European political structures and national identities. Yet this transformed landscape inevitably still bore the traces of its imperial past. Breaking with traditional histories that take 1918 as a strict line of demarcation, this collection focuses on the complexities that attended the transition from the Habsburg Empire to its successor states. In so doing, it produces new and more nuanced insights into the persistence and effectiveness of imperial institutions, as well as the sources of instability in the newly formed nation-states.

Paul Miller teaches history at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin (Poland) and at McDaniel College in the U.S. His forthcoming book, Misfire: The Sarajevo Assassination and the Winding Road to World War I, will be published by Oxford University Press in February 2022.

Claire Morelon is ERC Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Padova. She holds a dual doctorate in Modern European History from the University of Birmingham and the Institut d'Études Politiques in Paris, and was a Junior Research Fellow at The Queen’s College, University of Oxford.

“Taken together this set of essays provides an exciting overview of current work in the field and sets an agenda for further research on this crucial period in Central and East Central European history. This is a valuable, impressive collection, and the editors must be complimented on their achievement.” • German History

“As a whole, this book succeeds in complicating our views of the postimperial transition… This book gives us an able starting point on which to build new scholarship and continue conversations with one another that enliven and enrich our understanding of a complicated and difficult past.” • H-Net (Habsburg)

“Overall, this is an excellent text with a lot of interesting and novel observations on the experiences of people in the successor states of the AustroHungarian Empire. Our tendency in the past has been to wall off our studies along contemporary national boundaries, and the editors of this book have illustrated how these new nation- states both related to one another and struggled to create independent identities. Scholars of the late years of the empire and the transitions aft er its dissolution will undoubtedly find it a valuable resource, and I would not limit my recommendation just to historians. Anyone who studies Central European culture in the first half of the twentieth century may find something useful in this book.” • Journal of Austrian Studies

“Recently, another research trend can be observed: a revitalization of regional history. This has also brought new perspectives to the Habsburg monarchy and its neighbours and its successor states…This volume takes up these research trends... and makes an important contribution. The title "Embers of the Empire" can be taken literally. From the embers of empires, the successor states were able to strike new political sparks; under the surface of the new democratic orders, however, conflicts continue to swell… The study of the common history of empires and nation states, not least in their regional shades, offers many points of reference for further research.” • Bohemia


“In his afterword, Pieter Judson reminds us of the still dominant ideal of nations and nation states especially after 1918. As this ambitious and, all in all, very successful volume shows, however, new approaches in the study of history will offer new perspectives on the intricate afterlife of the Habsburg Empire.” • Hungarian Historical Review

“The major strengths of the work are informed, updated, and ambitious pieces that attempt to span the range of the empire in the style of the ‘Kronprinzenwerk’. Embers of Empire thus represents a sound start for further research, especially on the biographies of less well-known personalities that appeared on the stage in the wobbly world of the post-bellum states. For these reasons, it should find its place in every Habsburg and Central European historian’s shelf.” • Vicko Marelić in Contemporary Austrian Studies

“Embers of Empire is a highly impressive, thoroughly researched, and very well-written collection that draws on sources from multiple archives across all of the languages of the successor states. It will be of great interest to historians of Europe and Habsburg scholars, as well as specialists focusing on Eastern Europe and the Balkans.” • Günter Bischof, University of New Orleans

“The brilliant and well-informed essays in this collection insightfully deal with continuities between the late Habsburg and post-Habsburg eras. It exemplifies the recent stream of scholarship that has significantly revised the history of the Habsburg Empire and its legacies.” • Rudolf Kučera, Masaryk Institute and Archives of the Czech Academy of Sciences