The Limits of Loyalty: Imperial Symbolism, Popular Allegiances and State Patriotism in the Late Habsburg Monarchy. Austrian Studies, 9 by Laurence Cole , Daniel L. Unowsky (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 75I Cole, Laurenceand Unowsky, Daniel L. (eds). TheLimits ofLoyalty: Imperial Symbolism, Popular Allegiancesand State Patriotism in the Late Habsburg Monarchy. Austrian Studies,9. Berghahn Books,New Yorkand Oxford, 2007.viii+ 246pp. Map. Illustrations. Notes.Selectbibliography. Index. $90.00: £50.00. This finecollectionon competing politicalloyaltiesin the late Habsburg Monarchyis framedby clear researchquestions:to what degree were nationaland dynastic loyalties in thelateimperial period'separate'or 'parallel ' and towhatdegreedid theyoverlapor converge?Nine authors takeup thesequestions in essaysthateditors LaurenceCole and Daniel L. Unowsky hope willmakeclear'how nationalidentities and dynastic loyalties stoodin relationto each other'(p. 4). Their decisionto examinethelate Habsburg periodthrough thelensof 'dynastic patriotism' is a refreshing corrective to historiography on East-Central Europe thathas takensubjects'weakening loyalties to theStaatsidee as a given. Two essaysexamine the formalinstitutions throughwhich Habsburg subjects did or did notdeveloployalty to thestate.ErnstBruckmiiller takes up schooling, specifically theinculcation ofloyalty through patriotic education in Austria,and LaurenceCole examinesthepatriotic activities of military veterans'associationsin the south-western periphery of the Monarchy.A handful ofessaysthenfocuson thedynasty itself as an institution. Thesepresent the 'multiple personae'of the emperorin variouslegal and symbolic guises.HughAgnew'sessayon FranzJosephprovidesa lively analysis ofhis ambiguous status as the'uncrowned King' ofBohemia.In additionto Franz Joseph,the House of Habsburgcountedany numberof otherimperialor royalfigures to whom subjectsmightoffertheirdevotionand thus feel connected to thestate.AliceFreifeld honesin on one ofthemostcolourful, EmpressElisabeth,takingher seriously as a politicalplayerin Hungary. Reachingfurther backin time,NancyWingfield contributes an original and imaginative essayon thelegacyofJosephII, who died in 1790,butwenton to enjoya richand contested afterlife in thenineteenth century. The volumesmartly movesbeyondHobsbawm'sinvention oftradition as a topdownprocess toexplore thecreation andreception ofimperial traditions at the local levelin severalHabsburgregions.Daniel Unowsky'sstudyof EmperorFranzJoseph'speriodicvisits to Galicia revealshow actorson the groundusedthesestatevisits - elaborately stagedeventsmeantto promote dynastic loyalties - fortheirown local politicalends.Sarah Kent similarly showshow one setofevents- a visitbyFranzJosephto Zagreb - could simultaneously be a 'successful' statevisitand a venuefortheatrical Croatian protest againstMagyardomination. Finally, thevolumejuxtaposesone microand one macroperspective on Habsburgidentities. AlonRachamimov writes on theinternal struggles ofone man,thewriter Avigdor Hameiri,to define himself and theprocessbywhich he was definedby others.ChristianeWolf adds a welcome comparative analysisof the Habsburgs'adaptationsto constitutional politicsin a wider Europeansphere byplacingtheHabsburgdynasty alongside itsHohenzollern and Saxe-Coburg(Windsor) contemporaries. 752 SEER, 88, 4, OCTOBER 2OIO Ofcourse, thisbrief survey ofthebook'scontents doesnotdojusticetothe richness andinnovation ofindividual contributions. Identifying the'highlights' of any collectedvolumeis an idiosyncratic business.But one noteworthy value ofthecollection is itspresentation ofthewaygeography figured into dynastic rule.In severalessays, FranzJosephleapsfrom his'portrait selfthestaticpaintedimagethatgracedHabsburgclassrooms fornearlyseventy years- and becomestheEmperor/King on themove.Four oftheessays are,inpart,'itinerary pieces',tracing FranzJoseph'smovements through the realm.Agnewhas himdrinking beerin Pilsen,Unowsky follows himto synagoguesin Lemberg,Freifeld recallshim sailingdown the Danube toward Buda and Pest,and Kentcharts hisstopwiththeagitated university students in Zagreb.Although thisis notan explicit aim ofthebook,theessaysreveal the importance of transportation and passable travelroutesforconnecting rulerand subjects in thelateimperial period. In his Afterword, R. J. W. Evans reiterates a pointmade by Cole and Unowsky intheir introduction: ofOscarJászi'sfamously articulated 'centrifugal ' and 'centripetal' forcesat workin Austria-Hungary, the former have receivedfarmore scholarly attention thanthe latter.Evans writesthatin Habsburghistoriography 'royalism, in the sense of open allegianceto the Habsburgs whether spontaneous orstaged, hasbeenunderestimated' (p. 225). But the corrective offered in thisvolumeis a carefully measuredone. As thetitlesuggests, stateloyalties wereeverywhere limited. The dynasty faced formidable competitors initsowncrownlands, citiesand villages.TheLimits of Loyalty presents thiscompetition in vibrant and variedcase studies.Fromit readerswilltakea samplingof some of thebestrecentscholarship on the HabsburgMonarchy. Department ofHistory Lewisand ClarkCollege, Portland, OR Maureen Healy Ress, Imre. Kapcsolatok és keresztutak: Horvátok, szerbek, bosnyákok a nemzetállam vonzásában. L'Harmattan,Budapest,2004. 288 pp. Bibliography. 2250 Ft. This collectionof articles, publishedbetween1984 and 2003, coversthe generaltopicofrelations betweentheHabsburgMonarchyand Hungary, on theone hand,and on theothertheCroats,Serbsand BosnianMuslims, or 'Bosniaks'.To call thisan under-researched area would be untrue;that feware equippedto explainitscomplexities is unchallengeable. ImreRess is well-qualified to navigatethesetreacherous waters:a professional archivist and, since 1995, fellowof Budapest's HistoricalInstitute, he workedin theHungarianNationalArchive, butin the 1980swas also secondedto the AustrianState Archives.The presentcollectionis thusthe productof a lifetime's research,by one of the rare scholarswitha commandof both Hungarianand Serbo-Croat, and whosedoctoralthesis was on theBelgrade consulshipof the Hungarian Benjamin Kállay, later Austro-Hungarian ...