This book is a volume in the Penn Press Anniversary Collection. To mark its 125th anniversary in 2015, the University of Pennsylvania Press rereleased more than 1,100 titles from Penn Press's distinguished backlist from 1899-1999 that had fallen out of print. Spanning an entire century, the Anniversary Collection offers peer-reviewed scholarship in a wide range of subject areas.

The dramatic assassination of Archduke Ferdinand at Sarajevo opened the door to a tragic struggle which concluded with the disintegration of the curious dual empire of Austria Hungary and radically altered the political configuration of central Europe. This work, the culmination of a lifetime of study and thought on the Hapsburg Monarchy, penetrates its somber theme-the death throes of a recognized great power-in greater depth than any previous book. While it is of necessity heavily weighted with diplomatic and military affairs, a studied effort has been made to allocate appropriate attention to the internal evolution of the twinship of Austria-Hungary in all its variety and amplitude. The instructive story of the decline and collapse of this great power will have relevance not only for students of modern history but also for specialists in political science and for general readers who wish to understand the present shape of central Europe.

The extraordinary and amorphous Hapsburg Empire--"that ramshackle realm" as Lloyd George called it--extended from cultivated Vienna to the remote hamlets of the Ukrainian East, and comprised a wide mixture of peoples: Magyars, Czechs, Poles and Ruthenians, Slovenes, Croats. Mr. May discusses the many elements of this diverse realm, its society, culture, economy, politics, diplomacy, and great men; the burgeoning forces of nationalism which eventually were to tear the empire apart, and the reasons why it held together as long as it did--reasons which had much to do with the personalities at the head of the realm: Francis Joseph, the Empress-Queen Elizabeth, and various ministers such as Colomon Tisza and Counts Andrassy, Beust, and Aehrenthal, whose characters and achievements are vividly described. The book also deals with Austria-Hungary's relations with the major powers of France, Russia, England, Germany, Italy, and Turkey, and with the growing powers of the Balkan countries, assessing the pivotal role the Hapsburg Monarchy played in the diplomacy of modern Europe.