A EuropeNow Editor's Pick
A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year

"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."
--Tim Blanning, Wall Street Journal

"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."
--Tony Barber, Financial Times

"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."
--A. W. Purdue, Times Higher Education

"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."
--Annabelle Chapman, Prospect